The family asks for answers after the police killed a man mistaken for a 2-year-old gunman at the mall



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An officer shot and killed Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. around 10 pm CT Thursday at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. At that time, the authorities stated that he had engaged in an altercation at the mall and opened fire, injuring two people aged 18 and 12 years.

An officer met an armed Bradford who was fleeing the scene and shot dead, police said.

After conducting forensic tests and interviewing witnesses, the investigators said that Bradford may have been involved in the altercation, but probably did not fire the bullets. injured the two young people.

Parents demand answers when they cry a man whom they call EJ.

"EJ was a devoted son and brother, who dedicated his life to the service of his country and always acted appropriately," said his family in a statement.

"As we continue to cry, rest assured that we are working diligently with our legal team to determine exactly what happened and why this officer killed our son.We will never forget EJ and we will ask to continue to pray during this extremely difficult time. "

Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. said on his Facebook page that he was a combat engineer in the US Army. An army spokesman told CNN that he had never followed any advanced individual training and that he had not served officially in the army. .
"They killed him for no reason.He was not the shooter," said his aunt, Catherine Jewell, to the press. "He was a great guy, he was very respectable … they hurt him."

Bradford's Facebook page states that he was a US Army engineer. But he did not attend advanced individual training and did not serve, said army spokesman Lt. Col. Manny Ortiz.

The Bradford family has retained the services of its lawyer, Benjamin L. Crump, to civil rights, according to a statement from the law firm.

Crump previously represented the family of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American fatally shot in Florida in 2012.

Demonstrators demand justice

With signs saying "Justice for E.J." and "Black Lives Matter", dozens of protesters gathered in front of the mall on Saturday, showed footage of CNN's affiliate, WVTM.

"No justice, no peace," they shouted. "No racist police." They called for the officer who shot Bradford to be arrested for murder.

The officer is on administrative leave during an investigation, the police said. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will assume the lead role of the sheriff's office, said Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector. Hoover police will also conduct an internal investigation.

What happened?

Shots were fired at Alabama 's largest closed mall shortly before 10 pm. CT (11 pm ET) Thursday.

Witnesses described chaos, screaming patrons and staff working to help people escape or hide.

"They put us in storage cupboards and locked the doors, and then we spent five to ten minutes scared," said Lexie Joyner at WBRC, a CNN subsidiary. "And then they opened the doors of the emergency exits and we escaped."

The police said it started with a confrontation. An 18-year-old man was shot twice in the chest and a 12-year-old girl, a passer-by, was hit once, Rector said. Both were taken to the hospital.

A Hoover police officer, who worked at the mall's security, clashed with an armed gunman and fatally shot him, authorities said.

But the next day, Hoover police issued a statement that the man, Bradford, whom they had faced, had shot, had stopped firing on both people.

"This information indicates that there is at least one armed man still on the run," said the rector.

It is unusual for the police to cancel his account so quickly, said Tom Fuentes, CNN's senior law enforcement analyst, on Saturday. But because new information indicated that an armed man was on the run, they had to do it for the sake of the public, he said.

CNN's Faith Karimi, Jason Hanna, Dianne Gallagher, Barbara Starr and Michelle Krupa contributed to this report.

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