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By Daniella Silva
The family of a 21-year-old black man was killed by an officer. She was misidentified by police while it was an armed man in a mall in Alabama. The authorities were invited to broadcast any video related to the incident.
Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was killed by an officer in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham, at a Black Friday sale at the Riverchase Galleria Mall on Thursday night.
Bradford's family and his lawyer, famed civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, told NBC News Sunday that the authorities should release any relevant video surveillance of the mall or video footage of the body of an officer who would shed light on what happened before Bradford's death.
"Show us the video, the video will tell the story," Crump told NBC News.
Two Hoover police officers in charge of security at the mall responded to the gunfire at 9:52 pm Thursday, local time, police said in a statement.
The Hoover Police captain, Gregg Rector, said the incident began with a fight between two people. A man had shot a rifle and fired twice on the chest of an 18-year-old man. A 12-year-old girl was also injured.
The police initially stated that Bradford was the shooter. But the next day, the police issued a statement that new evidence suggested that Bradford "may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation" and that he had a handgun but probably did not fire.
The investigators said Friday that they thought more than two individuals were involved in the first altercation and that at least one gunman was still on the run.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is conducting the investigation and has not immediately responded to the request for comment clarifying what involvement, if any, Bradford could have had during the first altercation preceding the shooting or whether the authorities were broadcasting videos.
Bradford's family said Sunday at an emotional press conference that she had been devastated by her passing and by the fact that they had heard about it on social media.
"Thanksgiving will never be the same for me, it will never be the same," Bradford's mother, April Pipkins, told NBC News. "It's the day I lost my son, my firstborn."
Crump criticized the police for misidentifying Bradford as a gunman and not contacting the family following the fatal shooting.
"Not only did they murder him but they really murdered his character," Crump told the news conference. "[The officer] saw a black man with a gun and he decided that he was to be a criminal. "
Crump added that several witnesses had told the family that the officer who had killed Bradford had given no verbal order before shooting him in the face.
NBC News contacted Hoover police on Sunday for comments, but had no immediate response.
A woman standing with Bradford's family at the press conference collapsed and cried while taking a photo of him.
The family and Crump said Bradford had a license to carry a weapon. Alabama generally does not prohibit the carrying of firearms in a holster or other secure manner in public, although the Riverchase Galleria indicates on its website that "the law is not safe. it prohibits firearms in shopping centers.
Crump also represented families of other black victims of the shooting, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice.
The unidentified officer who shot Bradford by shooting was put on administrative leave during the continuation of the internal investigation into the part of the case involving an officer, police officials said. Hoover.
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