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Rev. Jesse Jackson called on Hoover officials to publish tapes of a police officer's shooting and to hold the police officer responsible for the death of 21-year-old Emantic Bradford Jr. in a funeral eulogy. young man shot dead at Thanksgiving.
Jackson spoke to religious services on Saturday for Bradford, who was black and died after gunshots broke out at the Riverchase Galleria Mall. Authorities said he owned a firearm and that he was near the scene of the shooting on one of the busiest shopping nights of the year.
The initial reports incorrectly indicated that Bradford was the gunman who injured two people. Later, officials said Bradford did not shoot with his gun and arrested another man.
"We will make the band public," said Jackson. "We want transparency, not dissimulation. Tell the story, tell it now. We want justice now. We want equity now.
Jackson invoked the long history of civil rights in Birmingham and Alabama, as well as the recent Black Lives Matter movement. He preached about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the four little girls killed in a bomb attack on 16th Street Baptist Church. He also listed some of the black men killed by police in high-profile incidents, including Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and Philando Castile.
"On the pictures of these fights and this bloodshed, EJ Bradford joined those ranks," Jackson said.
Jackson stated that Bradford would not be forgotten, and pledged to continue to fight to get more information about the shots.
"Innocent blood has power," said Jackson. (19659002) Police said Bradford was the shooter who had wounded two Other people inside the mall.A day later, they announced that Bradford had not fired the bullets that hit a 12-year-old boy and an 18-year-old boy.
The young black man with no criminal record who takes care of his father is still a threat, "Jackson said.
Jackson's remarks were preceded by tributes rendered by his relatives. The friends remembered Bradford as a generous and loyal companion.
"Everyone called EJ," said a friend. "He was still on call."
His father, Emantic Bradford Sr., fights cancer. After being diagnosed, he noticed a change in his son.
"When I got sick, I knew that my son turned the corner and began to look," said Bradford Sr. "The shoe was on the other foot. He started to watch me. My child was a good kid. "
He burst into tears when he spoke of the loss of his son.
" The years that I spent with him were 21 good years, "said his father. he will always be my hero, I miss his baby and he misses his mom. "
History made national headlines Activists demanding the broadcast of video footage organized demonstrations all over Hoover, including the shopping center.
One of the activists, Carlos Chaverst Jr., said the protests and requests for information were based on past civil rights struggles.
we are no longer dreaming of this better world, we are building it, "said Chaverst," How long are we going to suffer, how long will it be to see a family in mourning this way? "
Funeral were held at Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium on a cloudy Saturday morning. The mourners cried as they stopped in front of Bradford's open coffin. More than 1,000 people traveled to Boutwell to honor his life and memory. Bradford was a member of Rock City Church, which broadcast the service live over the Internet.
Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales said the community needed to meet.
"We are going to have to hold a conversation this country – not want, & # 39; said Scales. "It's not just a black thing. It's not just a white thing. It's a matter of humanity.
The Hoover Police Department sent images to the Alabama law enforcement agency, which is investigating the shooting. The city did not reveal any information about the police involved in the shooting, but said the person who had fired the fatal shot had been placed in idle service during the investigation.
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