Dec. 3, 2018 / 1:50 PM ET By Janelle Griffith
The man killed by police responding to a shooting at an Alabama mall on Thanksgiving night was shot three times from behind, an attorney for his family said Monday.
Lawyer Benjamin Crump released the findings of an independent autopsy at a news conference in Birmingham, Alabama, that indicate Emantic “E.J.” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was shot in the head, neck and back.
“We believe based on this forensic evidence that this officer should be charged with a crime,” Crump said. “There’s nothing that justifies him shooting E.J. as he’s moving away from him. You’re not a threat when you’re running away.”
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., in his father's home near Birmingham, Alabama, in his senior year of high school. Emantic Bradford Sr via AP
One of the bullets entered the back of Bradford‘s head and another near the back of his hip, according to the autopsy.
Bradford, 21, also had a laceration on his right eyebrow that might indicate he fell face forward.
“My son was murdered by this officer and that was cowardice," his father, Emantic Bradford Sr., a former corrections officer, said at the news conference. "You shot a 21-year-old person running away from gunfire. Never posed you a threat, never had nothing in his hand. Why did you shoot him? You can’t explain that to me, 'cause that ain’t training. That’s cowardice."
The city of Hoover said in statement Monday that it encourages Crump and the Bradford family to submit the independent autopsy results to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, "so this new information becomes a part of the official investigation.“
Hoover police said earlier Monday they would not release any evidence, including video of the fatal shooting, until the investigation is complete.
Bradford was killed by an officer responding to gunfire at the crowded Riverchase Galleria just before 10 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving night.
Hoover police said an argument between several young men led to gunfire.
The suspect in the shooting, Erron Brown, 20, was captured by the U.S. Marshals Service in Georgia on Thursday.
anhexus on December 4th, 2018 at 02:33 UTC »
i’m from Alabama and was visiting family for thanksgiving when it happened. don’t live far from the mall this happened at so all news stations were of course covering this and just ... wow. at the difference between this news and the news I witnessed that night. so many people just blaming this man and saying he went on a rampage trying to commit a massacre... people who were in the mall being interviewed and just trashing this man... pictures of the body on facebook friends’ pages...
when I saw it, I judged this man, thought he was a terrible person, thought again as i have before “how has our world gotten to this?” but now I realize I didn’t know anything about the situation. it’s amazing how news can spin things in a direction without all the facts, while acting as if all the facts were there and set in stone. and now majority of people who saw the news that night will probably go on believing this man was 100% out to kill, when that might not even be the case...
CaptnCarl85 on December 3rd, 2018 at 21:50 UTC »
He pulled out a gun to see if he could help, probably. It is still early on in the investigation phase. And people should hold off judgement of Mr Bradford. Rolling Stone has a good article on it below. If Alabama wants to be an open carry state, they shouldn't shoot people immediately at crime scenes just for brandishing pistols.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/good-guy-with-gun-760557/
KinkyQuesadilla on December 3rd, 2018 at 21:20 UTC »
The man killed by police responding to a shooting at an Alabama mall on Thanksgiving night was shot three times from behind
So the police killed an innocent man, and they shot him in the back?