Who was Stephen Perkins? Slain Alabama man's family says police 'ambushed' him during truck repossession
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: Alabama man Stephen ‘Steve’ Perkins was shot dead by a Decatur police officer on September 29 after a tow truck driver who came to repossess his truck told police the man had threatened him.
In a recently released video recorded by a surveillance camera, the tragic footage of Perkins’ white GMC Sierra being towed away while he breathed his last has sparked outrage.
The police officers who are reportedly responsible for firing the shots have not been named.
Who killed Stephen Perkins?
The fatal shooting took place on September 29, after Perkins came out of his house holding a flashlight.
The police and the driver of the tow truck said Perkins hid a gun on top of the flashlight. However, this cannot be verified by watching the footage, reported New York Post.
In the video, Perkins can be heard shouting, “Hey, put my truck down” before the police officers rushed toward him, per Daily Mail.
One of them shouted “Hey, hey! Police! Get on the ground!” But even before the police officer could finish uttering the sentence, Perkins was attacked by eighteen shots of bullets.
Out of the eighteen shots, seven hit the father-of-two.
The footage further continues to show the driver of the recovery truck of Allstar Recovery towed away the vehicle while Perkins was fighting for his life.
Two men, who appeared to be deputies, could be seen patting Perkins down, per New York Post.
The callous way in which the entire situation has been handled has since drawn immense criticism from people around the state, with a spokesperson for the Perkins family terming his death as an “ambush,” as the police officers only gave him a fraction of a second to comply with their order before they started firing.
Brenton Lipscomb, the family’s spokesperson, told NBC News on Monday, “From the immediate footage that we’re seeing, it looked like an ambush of him not even knowing who was in his yard.”
“They were in uniform, but it’s a very dark neighborhood. No police cars were in front of the house, they were parked down the street, hiding in neighborhoods’ yards, hiding around the house,” continued Lipscomb.
The president of the Morgan County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Rodney Gordon opined that the police officers appeared to be not following the right procedures.
Gordon told the Decatur Daily, “If you knock on the door as a police officer, we don't ever have this conversation. If you pull up to the house with the lights on, I don't come outside with a gun.”
He continued, “If you come knock on my door and identify yourself as a police officer, I don't come to the door with a gun.”
“This whole thing could have been totally avoided. According to the film — and it ain't lying — it was an ambush,” concluded Gordon.
Neighbor releases footage
Perkins’ neighbor - Susan Capps, 62, who lives one house over - also released footage from her surveillance camera.
She told the Decatur Daily that she did not see the police offering first aid to the man who was lying on his yard after being shot.
She said, “I stood outside the whole time, and I saw them pat him down. I did not see them render any first aid,” before adding, “All I kept hearing was ‘put the gun down, put the gun down.”
Capps recounted that Perkins was on the ground all along.
She continued, “I saw him move one arm slightly, and I heard him say, ‘Help.’ I saw his arm move like up toward his head, and then I didn’t see him move again.”
“And then I heard an officer call and say he ‘needed an ambulance ASAP,’ and then a little later I heard him say ‘he’s out,’” she added.
Capps claimed the ambulance was in “no hurry” to arrive.
She also said that when she asked a police officer about Perkins’ condition after the shooting, they lied to her saying “he’s fine.”
Irene Cardenas-Martinez, the spokesperson for the Decatur Police Department, however, contradicted Capps’ account and said, “Officers on scene provided Mr. Perkins with medical aid before he was transported to the hospital.”
She added, “An officer retrieved a medical pack and began assessing his injuries while other officers applied pressure to the wounds and applied a tourniquet to one of his legs before medics arrived.”
Police's apology for ‘inaccurate description' of encounter
In the aftermath of the incident, the police gave a statement claiming the deputies ordered Perkins to drop the weapon, which he did not comply with.
However, in October, Police Chief Todd Pinion apologized for giving the wrong description of the officers' commands.
Pinion said that the men, who identified themselves as “police,” ordered Perkins to “get on the ground.”
He added, “I apologize for the inaccurate description of the encounter in our initial statement, and we have already taken steps to improve our public information sharing process.”
He has also promised “transparency in providing any information we are able to share as soon as it is able to be released.”
Following the statement, the protesting public in Alabama has raised the question of what else the police department might have gotten wrong.
Pinion continued, “There is understandably much public conversation about the shooting of Stephen Perkins. Any time a police officer uses deadly force, questions should be asked, and answers provided.”
The police chief also confirmed that the internal investigation has concluded. He said, “Today, our department’s internal investigation into this case was completed. That investigation addresses potential policy violations only.”
“If I find department policy was violated and discipline is warranted, this would be presented to the Office of the Mayor for a determination hearing,” continued Pinion.
He concluded by saying, “At that hearing, the Mayor would hear the facts of the case and decide if discipline is warranted and to what extent.”
Meanwhile, Perkins' family said that his disputing the tow stemmed from the fact that his truck was not in repossession.