Emantic Bradford Jr, the 21-year-old African American man who was killed by a police officer on Thanksgiving at a mall in Alabama, was shot three times from behind, according to an independent autopsy released by a civil rights attorney on Monday.
His father told the Guardian the report showed his son was murdered.
According to the report, Dr Roger A Mitchell observed gunshot wounds to the right side of Bradford Jr’s body, in his head, neck and lower back. The report states: “The cause of death is gunshot wound of the head. Manner of death is homicide.”
After Thanksgiving dinner with his family, Bradford Jr went to the mall. Gunfire broke out. A witness said he heard multiple gunshots and later walked by Bradford’s body. A 12-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man were injured.
Initially, Hoover police identified Bradford as the suspect. They later said he was not the suspect, but had “brandished” a gun. Police backed off that claim too. A week after the shooting, a suspect was arrested in Georgia.
On Monday, through the lawyer Ben Crump, the Bradford family said: “[The autopsy] clearly demonstrates that EJ posed no threat to the off-duty Hoover police department officer who killed him while working a private security detail at Riverchase Galleria mall, since EJ was moving away from him.”
The statement added: “The findings are devastating and heartbreaking to EJ’s family, compounding the shattering impact of this unnecessary and unwarranted killing.”
In the days after the shooting, vigils took place across suburban Birmingham. Protesters took to the streets, blocking cars and holding up signs demanding “Justice for EJ”. Relatives arrived from around the country and families brought children to show them peaceful protests. Bradford’s mother and father spoke at a community meeting in a Baptist church that was central to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
A veteran of that movement, the Rev Jesse Jackson, delivered the eulogy at Bradford’s funeral on Saturday and attended a press conference on Monday.
Until they commissioned the private autopsy, Bradford’s parents said, they had no idea what happened to their son. They and Crump, the attorney, said they had asked repeatedly for police and state agencies to release any videos of the incident.
That was why it was necessary to commission the autopsy, Emantic Bradford Sr told the Guardian on Monday, adding that he wanted people to understand “what happened to my son and how he was murdered, ’cause that’s what I’m going to say. He was murdered.”
The Hoover police department said in a statement: “We encourage Attorney Benjamin Crump and the Bradford family to submit the Preliminary Anatomical Review to the Alabama law Enforcement Agency (Alea) so this new information becomes a part of the official investigation.”
Crump said his team passed the results to the Jefferson county medical examiner before informing the public, and the medical examiner should have shared the results with Alea.
Almost immediately after Bradford died, Alea took over the investigation. The state agency has requested videos and other information not be released “at the risk of compromising the justice process for everyone involved”, police said. The officer involved has not been named. Responding to the results of the private autopsy, police also called for a thorough investigation.
Crump said police offered the family their condolences last week. But the family has not heard from the police again, he said.
In his statement, he said: “EJ’s senseless death is the latest egregious example of a black man killed because he was perceived to be a threat due to the color of his skin. This tragically unacceptable pattern will not end until all who bear a measure of responsibility are held accountable.”