....never did anything wrong.
Posted on 08/08/2025 6:05:37 AM PDT by Red Badger
Body camera footage shows that an Alabama teen fatally shot by a Homewood police officer in June was armed with a gun when he was killed, the Jefferson County District Attorney said Wednesday.
D.A. Danny Carr said he has ruled the shooting death of 18-year-old Jabari Peoples justified. No charges will be filed and the case will not be sent to a grand jury, Carr said.
Carr announced his decision immediately after meeting with Peoples’ family at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The family was shown the law enforcement footage of the fatal June 23 shooting in Homewood Soccer Park.
The family addressed the ruling in a press conference this afternoon with civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Crump said they were shown a “short clip of an ALEA edited video” of the shooting. “We want full transparency,” Crump said.
The video shown the family was about four minutes long, with about a minute of it capturing the interaction between Peoples and the officers, Crump said.
Crump said the video they saw showed that Peoples was shot in the back while running away and that he never pointed anything at an officer.
“There was more to this interaction than what was provided,” Crump said. “This is not an open and shut case.”
Carr said the footage matched the series of events described by Homewood police immediately following the shooting.
“I think a good kid made a terrible decision that cost him his life,” Carr today told AL.com.
“It’s sad for everyone involved but the facts and the law dictated the decision that was made, not emotions,” Carr said.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency led the investigation, which is standard for many officer-involved shootings – and turned over the results, as well as the footage, to Carr on Friday.
ALEA refused to release the footage publicly, saying it would harm the investigation.
Carr and Homewood police told AL.com they will not be releasing the footage to the public. Crump, however, said he believed Homewood would release the video because the investigation is complete.
“Release all the video,” Crump said.
Carr declined to discuss his reasons for not releasing the video.
Peoples’ family and attorneys have claimed that the college student was not armed, did not resist, and did not deserve to die.
The shooting and refusal by ALEA to release the footage has sparked a series of protests by Black Lives Matter and other community activists, including some which led to arrests.
Carr said the video shows the officer pulling into the park.
The district attorney said it is his understanding there had been reports of possible criminal activity taking place in the city’s parks.
“Jabari Peoples was on the driver’s side and a young lady was on the passenger’s side,” Carr said.
The officer approached the vehicle and told them to roll down the window. The officer’s name has not been released but officials have confirmed he is a Black man.
“He could smell marijuana,” Carr said.
“He asked if there was marijuana in the car and the young lady said yes and gave him a jar that contained marijuana.”
The officer then got them to get out of the car.
“When Jabari opened his door, (the officer) could see a weapon in there,” Carr said.
“He moved Jabari back for officer safety and was going to put the cuffs on him, and then Jabari started to struggle with him.”
“A struggle ensued, and they fell to the ground,” the district attorney said. “He was on top of the officer.”
“At some point, he broke away and ran back toward the car,” Carr said.
“He reached into the driver’s side, grabbed a gun and the officer shot him.”
Peoples, who was holding the gun in his right hand, was shot one time in the lower left side of his back, Carr said. The officer fired only one shot, Carr added.
Carr said as district attorney it has always been his promise to provide facts and truth to all families who lose a loved one in an officer-involved shooting.
“Sometimes it may not end the way they want it to, but at least they’re armed with the facts and truth,” he said. “In this case we did just that.”
“I want to urge people to wait for the facts and the truth,” Carr said, “before you form an opinion.”
Crump said he does not accept the narrative that there was the type of struggle Carr described without seeing the unedited video.
“Show us every part of the video,” Crump said. “Show us everything.”
Peoples was a 2024 graduate of Aliceville High School where he was standout track athlete and football player.
Peoples had just finished his freshman year at Alabama A&M where he was studying computer information and criminal justice with hopes of becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically a detective.
He worked as a security guard at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Any thug with a gun faces the risk of being shot by a cop. Cops have to be attentive at all times.
For all the noise about this case, I’ve driven by Homewood Police building twice in the last 3 days and no protests. guess the family saw that the officer wasn’t lying. Kid made a mistake and paid an awful price for it. Crump is just a race baiting jerk.
Justice served. Who knows how many future crimes were prevented.
Fatigue levels are off the charts, and sympathy for black thugs is asymptotically approaching zero.
We need more of this. Much more.
Seems to have worked out well considering the fact the perp wanted to be a thug with a badge once he graduated college.
....never did anything wrong.
the sad thing is that the kid was an aspiring rapper, planned to go to Harvard, and was turning his motorcycle around ... the silver lining of course is that his parents can always start a gofundme page because ...
Since black privilege is off the charts, cops have to do backflips in justification for neutralizing fatiguers.
Cops: He had a gun.
Family: He didn’t have no gun!
Cops: Video shows he had a gun.
Family: He didn’t point it an nobody!
A “good kid” isn’t driving around while high with a pistol, smoking pot and then tries to kill a cop with said pistol.
Good riddance.
Unless the DA knew the kid personally, he could not make that judgment.
I’m so sick of these thugs being called *good kids* who *made a poor decision.
He was being gratuitously gracious.............
Crump is a disgusting person.
Good kids make terrible decisions all the time, this was a kid who made a lot of terrible decisions, and his parent is to blame. Otoh I'm sure every freeper here can see thru the msm b.s. about a good kid and a bad decision.
This wasnt a cub scout who set his tent on fire! That's a good kid making a bad decision.
This was a kid who chose to carry a firearm. And ill bet 10k it wasnt his first day of thug life
He asked if there was marijuana in the car and the young lady said yes and gave him a jar that contained marijuana
He got weed, he got weed / Chris Rock
Peoples had just finished his freshman year at Alabama A&M where he was studying computer information and criminal justice with hopes of becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically a detective. 👌
Agreed both AL.com and Crump (the “civil rights” attorney) have a vested interest in keeping the fiction stirred up, when it’s fading away to reality.
“And ill bet 10k it wasnt his first day of thug life”
An I’ll bet it was a stolen firearm............
FWIW. The cop is black.
And it’s my understanding that the dead kid really was a good person. Smoking weed shouldn’t be a death sentence. 18 y.o. make bad decisions a lot. I know I did. And yes, I carried a pistol when I was 18. Browning Hi-power. May have saved my life one time. But that’s another story...
A tragedy for all involved. Cop will have to live with it...young person gone. Show the family the entire video. Why edit it in any way?
I was born in B’ham. Wife works in B’ham.Lived there 40 years. We both love the city.
He was not a “good kid”.
He lived “the life.”
That “life” he lived was short.
Yet those living in the spirit might say he was already dead as living in the flesh is death.
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