JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Black Baptist preachers in Jacksonville, Fla., are calling for an independent investigation into a rash of recent shootings by police.
Family members said Kiko Battle, fatally shot by police, wanted to be a barber.
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The call follows the June 15 fatal shooting of 24-year-old Kiko Battle by two off-duty officers who stopped him for questioning while he was walking down the street not far from his home. Local media said it was Jacksonville’s eighth police-involved shooting of 2009 and the fifth fatality.
“We just want the killing to stop,” Edward Preston, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference in Jacksonville, said in comments aired on local TV news broadcasts. “There have been too many killings, and it’s time to bring it to an end.”
Police said Battle was a dangerous felon who pulled a stolen gun and pointed it after being shocked by a Taser and falling to the ground. Afterward they say he got up and started to flee by climbing over a fence.
Battle’s grandmother gave a different account. Ruth Sanders, 70, told the Florida Times-Union moments after he left her house she received a call from a neighbor saying her grandson was being shocked.
Sanders said she ran to the corner before shots were fired and could not see Battle because he was lying on the ground. She said she cried out to the officers begging them not to shoot.
Family members told the newspaper there was no reason to shoot Battle nine times after he had already been subdued.
Family members also questioned why police were bothering a young black man walking down the street in his own neighborhood in broad daylight. “It means everyone who was walking in the street was suspicious,” said Wallace Eberhart, an uncle.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said officers were doing “quality-of-life enforcement” when they approached Battle and another man. A spokesman said the officers were simply asking questions, when Battle became belligerent and the situation escalated.
Police said Battle was released last year from prison in Georgia, after serving a seven-year sentence for robbery and aggravated assault. They said the fully loaded 9mm firearm he was carrying had been reported stolen in Jacksonville earlier this year.
Battle’s grandmother said moments before his death he was eating lunch with her and teasing his sister by asking her for a kiss. Family members called him a “friendly, keep-you-laughing guy” who wanted to go to school to become a barber.
Funeral services for Battle were scheduled for Saturday, June 20, at Mount Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, his family’s home church.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.