Category: Press

FORT LAUDERDALE — More than five months after his son’s death, Clinton Jones, Sr. still gets angry every time he hears someone say that police officers wouldn’t shoot if young black men would just follow the rules.

The angst in his voice cut through the sanctuary at the Fort Lauderdale Church of God in Christ Saturday morning, where he interrupted the first public panel discussion his family attorneys have organized since his son Corey Jones was killed by a now-fired Palm Beach Gardens police officer.

“I’ve been following the rules for 58 years as a black man in America,” he told the crowd of a few dozen. “The incident that happened to my son, he didn’t have an opportunity to obey any rules. I’m angry, I’m mad and I want to know how can an officer get off when he does something like that?”

The panelists, which included Jones family attorney Kweku Darfoor and McCray’s Backyard Bar-B-Que owner Derrick McCray, had answers for the Jones family but warned that it may not be what they want to hear.

FULL COVERAGE: Corey Jones shooting

Echoing the sentiments on many attorneys in South Florida’s legal community after Jones’ death made national news, the panelists agreed that statistics on officer-involved shooting make it appear unlikely that former Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja will even face criminal charges — let alone be convicted — of any criminal wrongdoing in the popular drummer’s Oct. 18 death.

In the early hours of that day, Jones was headed home from a gig as a professional drummer with the band Future Prezidents when his car broke down on the Interstate 95 exit ramp at PGA Boulevard. He was trying to get a tow truck to bring his car home when Raja, wearing plainclothes and driving an unmarked van, drove up to his car and got out.

According to police officials, Raja said he shot Jones soon afterward because the 31-year-old came at him with a gun. But his family members say they believe Jones, who by day worked as a property manager for the Delray Beach Housing Authority, was actually trying to run away from Raja when the officer shot him.

Clinton Jones, Sr., who has seldom spoken publicly over the past five months, wondered aloud Saturday how his son’s case fits into the “follow the rules” phrase that has been the source of national debates on deadly encounters between police and mostly black youth. The Joneses and their attorneys have been adamant for five months in their belief that Corey Jones died without knowing Raja was a police officer.

“The ‘following the rules’ thing is a myth,” Darfoor said, comparing the downtown Fort Lauderdale neighborhood surrounding the church with the more affluent suburb of Weston. “They will not give somebody in this neighborhood three and four chances. Most of the time, the ‘rules’ are selectively enforced, and it’s a tool to be used against only some people.”

Saturday’s event was just the second formal public event Jones’ immediate family has hosted since he died. Jones’ brother, Clinton “CJ” Jones, Jr., last year co-hosted a music festival in Corey’s honor along with Future Presidentz frontman Boris Simeonov. They and others have been holding vigils at a makeshift memorial set up in the grass off the exit ramp, the most recent of which was Friday to mark the five-month anniversary of Corey’s death.

In the meantime, they are awaiting the end of a criminal investigation into the actions of Raja, who was on probation with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department at the time of the shooting and has since been fired.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said last month an investigation has yielded more than 100 witness interviews in 30 states and three countries in connection with the shooting, which happened near Palm Beach Gardens’ Embassy Suites hotel.

FBI officials as of last month were still analyzing the scene and performing ballistics testing. Experts say a key part of the investigation will be to determine whether Jones was trying to run away from Raja when he fired the fatal shot.

Raja fired six times and hit Jones with three bullets, including a fatal shot that entered through his side and lodged in his heart.

SOURCE: http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/crime–law/five-months-after-corey-jones-death-father-still-looking-for-answers/EDNeJCg2E7vTLwGcnP5NEN/

TALLAHASSEE — Staff writers Sarah Peters and Daphne Duret contributed to this story.

A body camera measure that gained new momentum following this past fall’s shooting death of motorist Corey Jones in Palm Beach Gardens was approved Monday by the Florida Senate and sent to Gov. Rick Scott.

The legislation (HB 93) doesn’t require law enforcement agencies to use cameras but demands that police and sheriff’s offices create policies and procedures overseeing use of the devices.

It cleared the Senate on a 37-0 vote, just days after the House approved it 113-0. Scott hasn’t said whether he’ll sign the measure.

“This is a bill that in the future is going to protect both law enforcement and citizens,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Atlantis.

Jones was waiting for a tow truck on the off-ramp of Interstate 95 at PGA Boulevard about 3:15 a.m. on Oct. 18 when he was shot three times by then-Palm Beach Gardens police officer Nouman Raja, who arrived at the scene in plain clothes driving an unmarked white van.

Raja has since been fired by the department.

Jones’ family members came to the Capitol last month on what would’ve been his 32nd birthday to lobby in support of the measure. They also delivered a letter to Scott’s office, asking for support on the legislation and investigations underway into the shooting.

Jones’ family members that day released black and white balloons in a solemn remembrance of the professional drummer, who worked by day as a property manager for the Delray Beach Housing Authority.

Kweku Darfoor, an attorney for Jones’ family, said Monday that they were celebrating the Legislature’s action, but still deeply grieving his loss.

“The family certainly is pleased, and they believe this is the first step in the fight for justice,” Darfoor said. “But it’s just one step, and hopefully there will be some funding attached to it.”

Three agencies are investigating Raja’s shooting of Jones — the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office, the Palm Beach County’s Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.

FBI officials, having interviewed more than 100 potential witnesses across 30 states and three countries, are conducting ballistics testing and other forensic tests.

Although the legislation focuses on law enforcement procedures, much of the Senate testimony Monday seemed directed at making the case for body cameras — a requirement that has drawn resistance from some police and sheriff’s departments. Some argue that while cameras might not be expensive, the cost and complexity of storing data can discourage their use.

Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, who pushed the legislation for two years, said cameras “can get rid of a lot of the speculation when it comes to law-enforcement interactions.”

The legislation would require law-enforcement agencies using body cameras to have guidelines for their use, maintenance and storage of data, along with policies for which officers wear cameras and under what circumstances.

Raja was not wearing a body camera the night he confronted Corey Jones and there is no recording of their encounter near Jones’ broken-down SUV on the I-95 off ramp.

The Palm Beach Gardens City Council in January unanimously approved spending $262,296 to buy body cameras for its police officers.

Only a small number of Florida law enforcement agencies have elected to use body cameras. About one-third of agencies nationwide use cameras.

Palm Beach Gardens Mayor Eric Jablin said police have already adopted policies and procedures and about 10 officers are using body cameras in a pilot program.

It’s going “very, very well” and will conclude at the end of March, he said. The city will fully-implement the body cameras after that.

“We’ll probably be the first in the state to be in full compliance with HB 93, which I’m proud of,” Jablin said. Of Jones’ death: “I wish it never happened, but I believe some good will come from it.”

Jablin is drafting a letter to Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg urging him to expedite the release of his findings. Councilman Joe Russo asked him to write to Aronberg after Jones’ aunt, Sheila Banks, addressed the City Council at a meeting Thursday.

Banks brought with her a note from a 6-year-old with a picture of a police uniform with a camera on it.

People are asking the family for answers, but they’re waiting just like everybody else, she said. It makes it difficult to sleep.

“We’re asking for your help to help us resolve this problem, to give us rest. We need rest,” she said.

Leonard Dietzen, general counsel for the Florida Police Chiefs Association, said the legislation likely only affirms what most agencies with cameras are already doing.

“If you’re going to have body cameras, you need to have extensive policies,” Dietzen said. “It’s kind of a ‘best practices’ bill.”

Staff writers Sarah Peters and Daphne Duret contributed to this story.

SOURCE: http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/body-camera-bill-fueled-corey-jones-death-heads-gov-scott/jRVrWqjngsq8sWhP2mbSEL/

Federal investigators will reportedly join local officials looking into the shooting death of Corey Jones, the black church musician who was killed last weekend by a plainclothes police officer.

The FBI will assist Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation into Jones’s death at the request of Sheriff Rick Bradshaw, the Palm Beach Post reports. “I welcome their expertise and believe that this will ensure the highest level of scrutiny and impartiality,” the Sheriff said in a statement obtained by the Post. “There have been many lessons learned from the tragic events that have occurred across the United States and there is nothing more important, now, than a comprehensive investigation process so we can ensure justice is served.”

Jones, 31, was shot and killed last Saturday after he was approached by a plainclothes police officer while waiting with his broken down car at the side of the highway in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Police say Officer Nouman Raja approached in an unmarked vehicle, apparently thinking the car was abandoned, and shot Jones after he was “suddenly confronted with an armed subject.”

The family’s lawyers said Raja never showed a badge and didn’t prove he was a police officer. Jones’s body was found almost 100 feet away from the car, indicating he may have run from the officer, and that his weapon found at the scene had not been shot. Jones, a drummer in a church band who has no criminal record, was licensed to carry the handgun. His family’s lawyers say he was shot three times.

No video footage of the shooting has yet emerged.

Source: http://time.com/4085779/corey-jones-fbi-florida-investigation/?iid=sr-link1