Alabama governor backs withholding video of officer fatally shooting Black student
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is supporting a state agency’s refusal to release body camera footage in the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old Black college freshman, saying the case must first be thoroughly investigated.
Ivey said she was confident “the facts will prevail” when the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency completes its investigation into the June 23 shooting of Jabari Peoples by an officer with the Homewood Police Department.
“This case [is] a top priority, and I am confident they are working to efficiently get this done,” Ivey said in a statement Wednesday to NBC affiliate WVTM 13 in Birmingham.
Peoples, an aspiring police detective, was killed at a soccer complex where he was sitting in his parked car with his girlfriend. An officer approached his car around 9:30 p.m. because he said he smelled what seemed like marijuana.
Peoples’ girlfriend, whose name has not been released, has denied he had a gun, said family attorney Ben Crump.
The officer, who has not been publicly identified, shot Peoples after he said Peoples reached for a gun in the pocket of his car door, according to the police department.
Peoples was shot in the back but there was no exit wound on his body and the bullet was not found inside him, according to an autopsy conducted by an independent medical examiner hired by his family.
An autopsy conducted by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has not been released at the request of the state law enforcement agency.
The officer’s body camera video documenting the shooting has become a crucial piece of evidence as Peoples’ family and girlfriend dispute the department’s version of events. The family, local leaders and many Homewood residents are demanding that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency release it.
State Rep. Kelvin Datcher, a Democrat who represents Homewood, said withholding the video undermines public confidence in law enforcement and tarnishes the integrity of the case.
“The point of having body camera footage is to ensure transparency for the community,” he said Thursday. “There’s an urgency for the family to get a look at that video.”
Protesters showed up to the Homewood City Council meeting this week calling for the video’s release and threatening to boycott local businesses, with the idea that economic pressure might force leaders to change their position.
“We will host sit-ins, we will hold dine-ins and vigils through downtown at the doorstep of your businesses,” the Rev. Wayne Harris told the council, according to WVTM. “Your commerce will feel our grief, and we will shut Homewood down for justice.”