Corey Jones family wants answers into his killing by police

After performing at a gig, Corey Jones car breaks down end route home. Stranded on a dark Florida highway at night, a man drives up and parks his car by Corey’s, gets out, and walks toward his car.

An hour later, Corey Jones is dead. The man that walked up on him? A plainclothes officer in an unmarked van, who never showed a badge.

What happened to Cory Jones?

Police say Jones pulled a gun out on the plainclothes officer which ultimately led to the shooting, but Jones family is not buying that reasoning.

How was Corey Jones supposed to know this man who walked up on him on a dark highway was a plainclothes officer who never identified or misidentified himself?

All I can think about with the crazy stories you hear in this world, that Corey Jones must have been scared.

Now his family is trying to make sense how a 31-year-old drummer ended up dead after his car breaks down.

What doesn’t make more sense is his interaction with Palm Beach Gardens officer. The family wants answers.

Jones family has hired Florida civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

“He doesn’t know if he’s about to be mugged, he’s about to be robbed, he’s about to be killed,” family lawyer Benjamin Crump said of Jones after the meeting with the Florida prosecutor. “Imagine yourselves on the side of the road at 3 in the morning, abandoned, the sense of concern you would have (while) waiting for a tow truck and an unmarked van rolls up.”

Authorities have remained very quiet about the details surrounding the circumstances of Jones death.

Jones was said to have a gun that night but he had it legally, including a concealed carry permit, but didn’t fire it once, according to Crump.

Jones’ gun was not next to him when he died about 80 to 100 feet from his car, having at some point tried to run away, according to the Jones family’s lawyers.

The plainclothes officer fired six shots, three of which hit Jones — including one that struck his aorta — the attorneys said. Not that he necessarily knew who, really, had opened fire.

“We believe Corey went to his grave not knowing if this was a real cop or not,” said Crump.

The story

Jones had just played a gig and was heading home when his car broke down. According to Crump, he called his big brother C.J., who offered to come get him only to have Corey tell him he wanted to stay with the car “because I have to perform at church with the choir the next morning,”.

Another call went out to friend and bandmate Mathew Huntsberger, who went to see Jones on the side of the road.

He left after Jones called a tow truck, telling CNN, “We didn’t think anything was going to happen.”

Around 3 a.m., Palm Beach Gardens police Officer Nouman Raja pulled up to check out what he thought was an abandoned car. Raja was on duty but was wearing plainclothes and driving an unmarked van, police Chief Stephen Stepp told reporters earlier this week.

“As the officer exited his vehicle, he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject,” Stepp said. “As a result of the confrontation, the officer discharged his firearm, resulting in the death of Mr. Corey Jones.”

Yet Jones family is having a hard time believing the officer’s story noting that Raja is the only one alive who can tell his side of the story.

And his brother C.J., or Clinton Jones Jr., said the kind, happy Corey Jones he knew wouldn’t knowingly challenge a police officer with a gun.

“We know that he would not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever pull a gun on a police (officer). Never,” Clinton Jones Jr. said. “This is not like him, and we need answers.”

An anonymous source told CNN that investigators think the shooting stemmed from Jones and Raja misidentifying each other. Raja felt he had to check the car because burglars had parked near the ramp where Jones’ vehicle was, the source said.

The anonymous source added that investigators believe Raja may not have made it sufficiently clear he was an officer and that Jones may not have heard what the officer said.

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