Holly MatkinIndianola, MS – The family of an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the chest by an Indianola police sergeant during an investigation into a domestic violence incident has demanded the officer be fired and criminally charged.
“No child should ever be subjected to such violence at the hands of those who are sworn to protect and serve,” the family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, said in a statement to CNN on Thursday. “We must demand justice for this young boy and his family. We cannot allow another senseless tragedy like this to occur. We must come together as a community to demand change and accountability from our law enforcement officials.”
The series of events leading up to the shooting began at approximately 4 a.m. on May 20, when the father of one of Nakala Murry’s children showed up at her home, FOX News reported.
Murry said the man knocked on a window of her residence and appeared “irate,” according to the news outlet.
She said she was concerned for her safety, so she snuck her phone to her 11-year-old son, Aderrien, and asked him to call his grandmother and the police, WJTV reported.
Moore said two Indianola police officers responded to the family’s home on BB King road, according to FOX News.
“My child’s father was still there,” Murry told ABC News. “He was like, ‘Don’t open the door.’ I was telling him that I’m going to open the door.”
Murry said the man then “ran toward the back” of the residence and ultimately fled as the officers “started kicking on the door with their foot, like they were trying to break it down,” ABC News reported.
Murry opened the door and told the officers the “irate” man had left and that only her three children were inside, FOX News reported.
According to Murry, Indianola Police Sergeant Greg Capers yelled into her house, telling everyone inside that they should come out with their hands raised.
Moore said Aderrien came into the living room with his hands empty, at which point Sgt. Capers shot him in the chest, FOX News reported.
“His words to me was ‘why did he shoot me?”’ Murry said her son told her right after he was shot. “He ran to me, he was bleeding, I held him… he bled out the mouth.”
Murry said Aderrien “sang gospel songs and prayed while bleeding out” as she and Sgt. Capers applied pressure to his wound with their hands to try to stop the bleeding, according to CNN.
Aderrien was rushed to a local hospital and treated for a lacerated liver, a collapsed lung, and multiple fractured ribs, FOX News reported.
He was released from the hospital on Wednesday and is continuing his recovery at home.
“He still has lots of questions,” Moore told CNN. “He is emotionally distraught. He is glad to be alive.”
The incident was captured by the sergeant’s bodycam.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) is handling the ongoing investigation into the officer-involved shooting, WJTV reported.
Their findings will be forwarded to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
Moore said Aderrien “did everything right” that day, but that he still inexplicably wound up being shot, CNN reported.
The attorney said there is “no way” the sergeant could have mistaken the boy for an adult.
“This 11-year-old child was about four-feet-ten it looks like and so he could not have been confused,” Moore told CNN. “So, we don’t know what happened, but we do know this officer’s actions were reckless, very reckless, and could have led to the loss of life.”
Moore’s assertions regarding what Sgt. Capers might have perceived conflicted with statements made by Murry, who told reporters the sergeant’s reaction to her son entering the room was “instant.”
“He came from around the corner, and it was instant. It was instant,” she said, adding that there was no way Sgt. Capers knew “if it was a man, boy, pig or cow” when he opened fire.
Moore and Aderrien’s family have demanded Sgt. Capers and Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson be fired over the ordeal, WJTV reported.
He has also called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to become involved.
“We gave you 48 hours to do the right thing. We told you on Monday evening that if you did not immediately terminate Greg Capers, we would be here,” Moore said during a rally outside Indianola City Hall on Thursday, according to WJTV.
Sgt. Capers has been suspended with pay while an investigation is conducted, which is protocol for most officer-involved shooting incidents.
“I didn’t ask for a suspension with pay. I asked and demanded termination. Did I stutter?” Moore said during the rally on Thursday. “Did I speak in Spanish? I know my name is Carlos, but I thought I was talking in English. When I say termination, I mean termination. You don’t give someone a paid vacation who committed such a reckless act.”
Another rally and a march to demand Sgt. Caper’s firing are planned for May 27, CNN reported.
“We are demanding justice,” Moore said. “An 11-year-old black boy in the city of Indianola came within an inch of losing his life. He had done nothing wrong and everything right.”
“We do believe he’s a strong young man and he will get through this, but it’s a lot to process,” the attorney added, according to The Washington Post. “And he’s never going to trust the police again.”
Moore said the family is planning to file a federal civil rights lawsuit in the near future, NBC News reported.
“We need to hold our law enforcement officers to a higher standard and ensure that they are trained to de-escalate situations and use non-lethal methods whenever possible,” he said.
