JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two Jacksonville Sheriff's Officers shot and killed 28-year-old D'Angelo Stallworth, a father of three. They said it was after he pushed a gun into one of the officers' chests Tuesday morning.
Detectives said Stallworth was running away but had turned around when they shot him.
Stallworth's family questions the story from police and complains they haven't done a thorough investigation and haven't spoken to all the witnesses.
Stallworth's family members are very upset and said Stallworth would have never done what officers say he did, and they have at least one witness to back them up. They want an independent investigation to find out what really happened.
D'Angelo Stallworth's family and friends wept as they stood behind their attorney, Eric Block, a day after the shooting and said that there are still many unanswered questions.
"We do know that as the police shot D'Angelo, six times, from approximately 40 or 45 feet away as he tried to get away from them, unarmed, he crawled a few feet and he was still moving. But for some reason the police officers never even tried to help him," Eric Block, the family's attorney, said.
Block said Stallworth was at the complex visiting one of his three children and the child's mother, Latrell Johnson, who said she heard the gunshots.
"So she waits until the six shots stop and then she comes outside, sees him staggering, and he's got blood coming out of his mouth," Block said.
Johnson was so upset at the police conference she collapsed at the attorney's office, and rescuers rushed her to a hospital.
JSO's director, Tom Hackney, said Tuesday that two veteran officers were at the apartment next door helping two maintenance men with an eviction. They said they saw Stallworth on the shared second-story patio when he lifted a comforter, grabbed a gun and pointed it into one of the officers' chests. The other officer ran to help.
"Somewhere in the course of wrestling for the gun, the suspect drops the gun. However those two officers were not aware of that. When they saw him turn toward them, not only out of fear for their life, but fearful for the two civilians, the maintenance workers that were with them out on the patio area. So they elected to employ deadly force," Hackney said.
The director said they later found 126.8 grams of marijuana on the patio. Stallworth's family, and a neighbor, don't believe that.
"An independent eyewitnesses told us, didn't tell the police because the police didn't bother to ask, but told us there was no magazine, no gun, no marijuana," Block said.
Block said that Stallworth wasn't a drug dealer. He was an 11-year supervisor at UPS and a caring father. He's calling for an independent investigation into what really happened and blames JSO for not getting the whole story.
"On this case you are damn right, it is shoddy police work. It is premature, it is wrong, it is incomplete," Block said.
Stallworth's family members said they do not want people to riot or loot. They want people to remain peaceful as they search for answers. They're holding a candlelight vigil Wednesday night at the Planters Walk Apartments, where Stallworth was shot, at 7 p.m.
The medical examiner is doing on autopsy, but Block said he's ordering an independent one once it is completed.
