Jabari Peoples’ family, community, pushes for release of police body cam footage

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Pressure is mounting on Homewood and state officials over the shooting death of Jabari Peoples by a Homewood police officer last month. Protestors took to city hall on Tuesday evening to demand officials release body-camera footage from the shooting that killed the Black 18-year-old. 

Peoples’ cousin Zhia Kiez lifted her chin and raised her voice over the crowd in front of Homewood City Hall. 

“No justice!” Kiez cried. 

“No peace!” The crowd replied. 

“No racist!” Kiez called. 

“Police!” The crowd finished. 

“Say his name!” Kiez shouted. 

“Jabari Peoples!”

Peoples’ family made their second appearance in Homewood that day. They already held a press conference with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been involved in high-profile cases including those of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, to call for the release of the body-camera video.

“Jabari Peoples shouldn’t be dead,” Crump said. “His family is … just asking for answers. Is that so much to ask for?”

Protestors that evening echoed Crump’s sentiment: that the Homewood Police should release unedited body-camera footage from the incident. 

“As we stand here today, we do not stand alone,” Rev. W. Taft Harris Jr. with Black Lives Matter told protestors. “We stand with the mayor of Homewood, who has said, ‘release the video.’ Release the video!” 

Harris said the group met with Homewood Mayor Alex Wyatt after staging a sit in in his office. Wyatt said in a phone call on Wednesday that the city has asked the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to release the body-camera footage to the family, although not the public. ALEA leaders have so far denied access to the video, saying it would interfere with the ongoing investigation. 

Officers confronted Peoples on June 23 after they say they smelled marijuana coming from a vehicle in a soccer field parking lot. Police say an officer fired at the teenager after Peoples grabbed for a gun in the  car door. 

But the family and a witness disputes that narrative, saying Peoples was shot in the back and did not have a weapon. 

Protestors were undeterred. 

“It’s important for us to raise our voices so that they don’t think that no one is paying attention,” protestor Sherrette Spicer said. “Police need to release the video so that people can have clarity about what happened, good, bad, or ugly. And the longer it takes, the worse it gets.” 

Travis Jackson, a grassroots organizer with Black Lives Matter Birmingham, called the incident a modern racial lynching. 

“I hope people understand that police brutality does exist because of police immunity laws,” Jackson said. “With these laws, there will unfortunately be an increase of these racial lynchings. The family deserves justice.”