# 21-year-old Man Shot And Killed By Alabama Cops...and Then They Said, "oops."



## RocStar (Nov 25, 2018)

I searched for a thread about this and didn't see one yet...maybe I missed it?


*Alabama Cops Kill 21-Year-Old After They Say He Opened Fire In A Mall. Now They Say He Didn't*
November 23rd, 2018
Michael Harriot

There was no “maybe.”

When the Hoover, Ala. Police Department explained why one of their officers shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. in an Alabama mall on Thursday night, they did not say “maybe.” They said _they knew_ their brave officer had stopped an active shooter. They did not equivocate. They told the world that they had killed a criminal.

Now they are saying maybe they made a mistake.

They said _they knew_ their brave officer had stopped an active shooter. They did not equivocate. They told the world that they had killed a criminal.

Now they are saying maybe they made a mistake.

Late Thursday evening, police officers from the Birmingham, Ala. suburb of Hoover responded to reports of shots being fired in the Riverchase Galleria Mall. News reports painted a chaotic scene with multiple injuries. Photos and videos of the injured and dead victims circulated on social media.

In the aftermath, the Hoover Police Department issued a statement and held a press conference telling a simple story: Two young men began fighting inside the mall. One man drew a gun and shot an 18-year-old man twice. He also shot a 12-year-old. As the gunman fled, cops saw him, he “brandished” a pistol and the police shot the suspect dead. The end.

“Yesterday, at 9:52 p.m., two males engaged in a physical altercation,” read the statement from the Hoover Police Department, adding:

During the fight, one of the males produced a handgun and shot the other male twice in the torso. Two uniformed Hoover police officers providing security at the mall were in close proximity and heard the gunshots. While moving toward the scene, one of the officers encountered a suspect brandishing a pistol and shot him. That individual, a 21-year-old male from Hueytown, was pronounced deceased on the scene.

That “suspect” was Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., whom HPD Captain Greg Rector had already publicly described as an armed shooter who shot an 18-year-old and a child in a crowded shopping area.

Thus began the debate.

Even though police had encountered a dangerous criminal who had just shot someone, a few locals wondered if the officers had to kill him. Some pointed out the countless non-black individuals who had been subdued by the Hoover police.


Others, however, blamed it on the black “thugs.” Before there was even an investigation, some had already shrugged off Bradford’s death as a consequence of his own criminal actions. 

Then, late Friday evening, the Hoover police chief issued another statement about the 21-year-old who they shot, killed and—before his body was even cold—told his community he had unquestionably shot a teenager twice in plain view and endangered hundreds of other citizens.

The Hoover Police Department said: “Oops.”

“New evidence suggests that while Mr. Bradford was likely involved in some aspect of the altercation,” the statement said, “he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim.”

“We regret that our initial media release was not totally accurate,” the news release continued, “but new evidence suggests it was not.”

See? They apologized.

Bradford, known to family and friends as “E.J.,” had enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school, according to the Hoover Sun. So far, Bradford’s family, including his father who works as a law enforcement officer, has declined comment on Bradford Jr.’s death.

The Hoover police department says they are still searching for the initial shooting suspect. They also still insist that Bradford brandished a handgun while engaging an officer.

Until tomorrow...

_Maybe._

https://www.theroot.com/alabama-cops-kill-21-year-old-after-they-say-he-opened-1830629001


----------



## Theresamonet (Nov 25, 2018)

The police should not be shooting (to kill) first and asking questions last... But I would like to know what involvement, if any, the deceased had in the mall shootout. 

There are too many of us dying for no other reason than being black, for me to cape for one who might have shot a child at a mall. I need more details.


----------



## Atthatday (Nov 25, 2018)

The rest of the story, the one you won’t see much, is that Mr. Bradford had no involvement in the first shooting. 

Another article stated that Mr. Bradford was attempting to apprehend the shooter and that he was NOT the shooter. Meanwhile, there’s still a shooter at large. Hmmm...


----------



## Kiowa (Nov 25, 2018)

"Good guys with guns" only works if you are not black
Bradford was also US Army active duty?...


----------



## Prudent1 (Nov 29, 2018)

Every year military personnel who are black are shot while home for the holidays. This is becoming some sort of sick trend. @Theresamonet, I'm with you about not caping and marching for someone with a bloody knife in their hands just because they are black but in this case it appears that the young man was trying to protect his family when the gun shots rang out, cops came, adrenaline flowed, and now he is gone forever along with that poor child who was killed by the true perpetrator.


----------

