Over the smell of marijuana that may not have even existed, Jacksonville sheriff’s officers ordered three young men to step out of the car, only for an 18-year-old man to remain seated in the passenger seat with his hand beneath the seat, making the cops fear for their lives.
After a 15-minute standoff with cops holding Devon Tillman Gregory at gunpoint, ordering him to show both hands, several cops opened fire, shooting him dozens of times.
But now the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is saying Gregory shot himself before he was shot by officers.
A bodycam video released by the sheriff’s office Thursday shows Gregory had his head between his legs, facing downwards when a cloud of smokes explodes around his head which is then followed by dozens of gunshots fired by the cops. But the alleged gun is not visible in the video.
The sheriff’s office says a gun was recovered from the passenger’s side. But nothing has been said about any marijuana which is the justification officers used to order them out of the car.
The initial traffic stop was over a failure to remain in a single lane but no dash cam video has been released to show this.
According to the Florida Times-Union:
The young man shot multiple times by officers after a late Tuesday traffic stop on San Juan Avenue shot himself first, according to the medical examiner and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, which also released body camera video.
The new information and nearly 19-minute video were released Thursday night, showing four officers trying to convince an increasingly emotional Devon Tillman Gregory to pull his right hand out from under the passenger seat.
“This case continues to be investigated, however, we are proactively releasing the body-worn camera footage of the police-involved shooting as a result of the medical examiner advising that the suspect suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” a brief Sheriff’s Office statement said.
Earlier this month, a new law was passed in Virginia forbidding police officers from using the excuse of marijuana smell to search a car because it has been proven that cops say that whether they smell it or not because it can never be proven in court.
Also, numerous studies have shown that Black people are four times as likely than White people to be arrested for weed even though both consume cannabis at the same rate.
Gregory had just gotten off work at McDonalds. The two other men in the car were his cousins, according to his grandmother.
Watch the shortened edited video above or the full-length 19-minute video here.