Vol. 79/No. 40      November 9, 2015

South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP/Carline Jean

Hundreds protested Oct. 22 after cop in street clothes shot and killed Corey Jones in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Jones was waiting for tow truck at 3 a.m. after his car broke down.

Many carried handmade signs saying, “Justice for Corey,” “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter.”

Jones, a worker at the Delray Beach Housing Authority and musician in a local band and at his church, was returning from a gig Oct. 18 when his car broke down about 3 a.m. He pulled off the highway onto the Palm Beach Gardens exit ramp. A friend drove out to help but they couldn’t get the car started. After Jones called a tow truck, the friend left.

A short time later, Raja, who was in plainclothes and driving an unmarked van with tinted windows, shot Jones three times. It was not until 15 hours later that the police informed the family that Jones had been killed.

Police Chief Stephen Stepp told an Oct. 20 press conference that Raja spotted what he thought was an abandoned car. “As the officer exited his vehicle, he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject,” Stepp said. He said that a handgun belonging to Jones, bought a few days before, was found near the car. Stepp reported that he had asked the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the death.

Police refused to offer any further information until the morning of the rally, when Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg met with family members and their lawyers. Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers, said that Aronberg told them Raja, who was not wearing a badge, fired six shots at Jones, who was running away. Jones never fired his gun. Crump previously represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

Jones’ family said Corey bought the gun for self-defense because he often transported expensive band equipment at late hours.

Many at the rally were angry that the cops portrayed Jones, well known as a musician and church activist in the area, as an aggressor. “Corey was nonviolent, he was not confrontational at all,” Jones’ cousin Kalandreia Davis told the Militant.

Jones’ family doubts he knew that Raja, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and baseball cap, was a cop. “[Corey] doesn’t know if he’s about to be mugged, if he’s about to be killed,” Crump told the press. “Imagine … the sense of concern you would have 3 in the morning, waiting for the tow truck and an unmarked van rolls up on you.”

“No disrespect about Black Lives Matter — all lives matter,” Jones’ brother, C.J. Jones, told NBC News. “My brother had plenty of friends. White friends. Asian friends.”

Rally participants were skeptical that Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators will tell the truth. Since 2000, according to a report aired on WPTV in April, 114 people have been shot by deputies of the sheriff’s office, the largest police force in the area. But the agency ruled that all but 12 of them were justified.

“It’s an injustice,” said Alyssa, a Publix supermarket worker, who is Caucasian. Asking that her last name not be used, she said she came to the rally “because not doing anything is the worst thing. The police always try to sweep everything under the rug.”

Also at the rally were David Adams, whose brother Seth was shot and killed by an undercover Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy in 2012, and family members of Aldo Alvarez, a mentally disabled man who was shot and wounded by an off-duty deputy. Both the sheriff’s office and the state attorney’s office exonerated the cops in the two cases.
 
 
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