Family wants to know why student was fatally shot by an Alabama police officer

An independent autopsy determined that no exit wound or bullet was found in the body of an 18-year-old Black college freshman who was fatally shot by a police officer in Alabama, his family’s attorney said Tuesday.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump asked state officials and the Homewood Police Department to release body camera video of the deadly June 23 encounter to help explain why Jabari Peoples, an aspiring police detective with no criminal history, was killed, Crump said in a news conference.

The Homewood Police Department said the video had been turned over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is investigating the case. The police department has not released the name of the officer who shot Peoples.

Crump said Peoples was majoring in computer information systems and criminal justice but did not name the school he attended.

“Jabari represented the very best of what we had to offer and was doing everything right,” Crump said.

The department said in a statement released two days after the shooting that the officer approached a vehicle parked in the back of a soccer complex around 9:30 that night because the officer smelled what seemed like marijuana.

Recreational use of cannabis is illegal in Alabama but medical marijuana is legal.

The officer ordered Peoples and his girlfriend out of the vehicle, the statement said. The girlfriend’s name has not been released by the department nor by Crump.

When the officer attempted to arrest Peoples for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, the statement said, a physical struggle broke out between them. The officer was knocked to the ground, and Peoples grabbed a handgun from inside the driver’s-side door pocket, according to the statement.

“The officer gave multiple verbal commands for Mr. Peoples to let go of the handgun,” department officials said in the statement.

But Peoples’ girlfriend told his family and Crump that Peoples was unarmed, according to NBC News affiliate WVTM13 in Birmingham, Alabama.

She told his family that she and Peoples were approached by a man in an unmarked vehicle with no lights or sirens and without visible identification, and that they complied with orders, the station reported.

“We buried our child on Saturday, just show us what happened to our child please,” said Peoples’ father, William Peoples, at the news conference.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said Tuesday that releasing the video, even to just family members, could hinder its investigation.

“Due to the ongoing investigation, we do not have any additional details to share.”

The agency’s response was contrary to what the police department said in its statement.

“The details surrounding this incident are clearly captured on the officer’s body worn camera, of which ALEA took possession,” it said. “Arrangements are being made to coordinate viewing of the video by Mr. Peoples’ family.”

Crump said releasing the video is crucial to understanding why Peoples was shot in the back and what happened to the bullet.

The family hired a medical examiner in Atlanta to conduct an independent autopsy on Peoples’ body before Saturday’s funeral, Crump said.

Family members told WVTM13 that the police department did not contact them the night their son was killed and that the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy without their consent. They also have not received an official police report on the shooting, they told the station.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates confirmed his office completed an autopsy on Peoples but said the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency asked it not to release any information about the case.

During the news conference Tuesday, people in the crowd could be heard chanting, “Show the video.”

“If the goal is transparency and justice, this is not hard logic, give us the evidence,” said Leroy Maxwell Jr., another attorney representing the family.