Months following the fatal shooting of a Decatur, Alabama, Black man in a barrage of police gunfire outside his front door, the city has fired three officers linked to the incident.
Additionally, one officer has been suspended, with the mayor saying the officers violated departmental policy.
Attorney Lee Merritt is representing the family of Stephen Perkins, the deceased. He said they are optimistic but cautious about the termination and the suspension.
“An administrative action is important when there is a city and policies involved,“ Merritt said at a press conference on Friday, Dec. 8, according to WHNT.
Adding, “But there is something much more important in this particular case, it’s the brutal murder of a citizen, Steve Perkins, a father, a husband, a beloved member of this community.”
Merritt wants to see the officers charged, expressing hope that Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson will convene a grand jury to present a case to.
The city released news about the terminations to the public a day earlier, first in a press release by the Decatur Police Department and later by Mayor Tab Bowling.
Neither said which policy or procedure was breached.
Bowling says it is against state law to reveal the information about the terminations, including the officers’ names.
Decatur Police Chief Todd Pinion said that his department did an internal probe. DPD worked alongside the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is now conducting a criminal investigation into the incident. The findings from both agencies contributed to actions taken against each involved officer.
Officers arrived at Perkins’ home on Sept. 29 after a tow truck driver, attempting to repossess his vehicle, called 911 claiming the man pulled a gun on him, according to police reports.
An investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency into the officers’ actions that early morning revealed that they fired shots when Perkins purportedly “brandished a handgun” with a light “toward an officer with the Decatur Police Department.”
Video footage from neighbors’ homes captures a flurry of bullets, striking and fatally injuring Perkins. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where the 39-year-old was later pronounced dead. Homeowners in his community alleged that the officers who have since been terminated by the mayor used an “unjust excessive amount of force” on Perkins, who was shot seven times.
Bowling shared with the press that he could not go into detail about what exactly the police on site actually did wrong.
“Per Alabama law, there is an exception to the public records law that covers sensitive personnel records. Officers’ names and the specific policy violations along with specific decisions remain sensitive to personnel records and cannot be made public at this point in the process,” the mayor said at Thursday’s news conference regarding the firing, according to CNN.
Merrit said the family wants the names released.
“I believe it is important to get all the names of the officers, their faces out… The same way if any regular citizen, civilian had been accused of crime, their face makes the evening news,” he said.
According to city attorney Herman Marks Jr., the officers are granted a seven-day window from the termination announcement to initiate an appeal.
Perkins’ wife, Catrela Perkins, said the news has not removed the sting of her husband’s killing.
“I can honestly say that I’m still feeling the same. I’m still hurt. Still a little disappointed. But, it is a step, I guess, towards justice. But I still feel the same,” she said.
She also said the couple’s 7-year-old child, who doesn’t understand why her dad was killed, is taking it all especially hard.
“She doesn’t fully understand. It’s hard for an adults to wrap their heads around what actually happened. What she says is, ‘Mommy why didn’t they just knock at the door?’ So, if a 7-year-old can think logically like that, why can’t adults?” the mom rhetorically asks.
