Protests ongoing after deputy-involved shooting left 2 teens dead
LAKE MARY, Fla. - A crowd of demonstrators and grieving family members gathered along King Street in Cocoa on Wednesday night, calling for the Brevard County Sheriff's Office to release more video footage and information after two teenagers were fatally shot by a deputy.
Sincere Pierce, 18, and Angelo "AJ" Crooms, 16, were killed during the incident on Friday, November 13.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday released a dashboard camera video from one of the patrol cars. Before the rally began, Pierce’s family and their attorney told FOX 35 News that they believe there is video footage from the second sheriff's car that was on the scene the day of the shooting. They want that made public.
"In the video, we saw two police cars. One dashcam was released," said attorney Natalie Jackson. "There should be dashcams."
Deputies Jafet Santiago-Miranda and Carson Hendren were attempting to conduct a follow-up investigation on what they believed was a possible stolen car that had just recently fled from another deputy in the Cocoa area.
The deputies located the car in question and followed it to a residential area. The deputies exited their vehicles in an attempt to make contact with the occupants, later identified as Crooms and Pierce.
"As you can clearly hear and see on the video recording, Deputy Santiago–Miranda gives repeated verbal commands -- seven to be exact -- for the driver of the vehicle to stop the car; however, the driver of the vehicle, 16-year-old Angelo Crooms turns and accelerates the vehicle towards Deputy Santiago-Miranda who was then forced to fire his service weapon in an attempt to stop the deadly threat of the car from crashing into him," Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a statement sent to FOX 35 News.
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Crooms and Pierce died from their injuries. The case is now under review by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
According to Sheriff Wayne Ivey’s statement, a third person was reportedly in the vehicle at the time of the shooting.
"In addition to the video evidence that shows our Deputy in harm's way, an occupant from inside the vehicle has provided a thorough statement to FDLE that confirms the occupants of the vehicle heard the verbal commands of the Deputy and that Crooms still turned the vehicle and accelerated."
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Famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on Monday announced that he is representing families of the two Black teens. He released a statement on Wednesday, which read:
“After reviewing the limited footage released by Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, it is painfully troubling to us that this teen driver and the teen backseat passenger were terrified and drove around deputies who approached the vehicle with guns drawn. Believe your own eyes. The video shows the deputy was still shooting as the car cleared him and posed no threat."
“Claiming that this deputy discharged 10 shots to get himself out of harm's way is a clear attempt to justify the killing of these teens. If anything, the deputy appears to have moved closer to the vehicle to get a better shot. The video shows that the deputy continued to fire shots into the side of the vehicle as it was passing him, after he was out of harm’s way. This disturbing incident, which cost the lives of two Black teens, again documents the dangers of driving or even riding while Black -- since the deputy also shot into the backseat, killing a passenger."
“We demand that BCSO release all footage in the case, including the dashcam footage from the other vehicle, and any neighborhood surveillance videos. We urge anyone with additional video evidence, including neighbors with home surveillance cams, to come forward so that we can have a clearer picture of the facts in this case.”
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The Sheriff's Office had offered few details since the shooting and was under scrutiny from the public for more transparency.
"Even though the incident is still under investigation, and as such we are limited in what we can release at this time, I wanted to provide our community an update on what happened during the incident and also a timeline of when we believe the investigation will be concluded and provided to the State Attorney for review," Sheriff Ivey added.
Deputy Santiago-Miranda has been employed with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office since February of 2017 while Deputy Hendren has been employed with the Sheriff’s Office since June of 2018.
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Both Deputies are on paid administrative leave during the course of the investigation as is customary in all officer-involved shooting investigations.
States Attorney Phil Archer said when FDLE’s investigation is complete, his office could decide if charges will be filed.
Earlier Wednesday, protesters gathered at the Metropolitan Baptist Church. Some of the demonstrators included family members and friends of the victim.
Watch FOX 35 News for the latest Central Florida news.