A recently-released independent autopsy suggests that police who responded to an Alabama mall on Thanksgiving Day shot a bystander from behind three times.
Family attorney Benjamin Crump said Monday that the private report stated that Hoover police shot Emantic Bradford Jr., 21, in the head, neck, and back. A laceration located on Bradford’s right eyebrow possibly indicates he fell forward after being mortally wounded, according to NBC News.
AL.com reported that chief forensic pathologist Dr. Roger Mitchell found that all three bullets entered Bradford from behind at an upward angle.
“The cause of death is gunshot wound of the head. The manner of death is homicide,” Crump wrote in a document presented at Monday’s press conference.
Officials initially claimed Bradford was in an altercation with an 18-year-old at the mall when he pulled a gun and shot the teen. NPR reported that officials have since retracted their original statement, saying it was “highly unlikely” that Bradford was the gunman who wounded the teen and a 12-year-old girl.
Late last month, Bradford’s relatives demanded Hoover police release mall video, witness video, and body camera footage showing the 21-year-old Army veteran’s shooting death. Accompanying the family, civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the police department hasn’t contacted his clients and that they learned about his death on social media, according to WBHM.
The release of the private autopsy comes days after U.S. Marshals arrested the suspected gunman, Erron Martez Dequan Brown, 20, in Georgia. He was charged with attempted murder in connection with the Thanksgiving mall shooting.
On Monday, police said they won’t be releasing video of the deadly shooting until they complete their investigation.
[Feature Photo: Emantic Bradford Jr./Handout]
