Two teenagers killed by Florida sheriff’s deputy is under investigation

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Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting by a Florida sheriff’s deputy of two Black teenagers who were in a moving car during an encounter with law enforcement.

Teenagers Killed By Florida Sheriff’s

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the Nov. 13 shooting of the teenagers, Angelo Crooms, 16, and Sincere Pierce, 18, both of Cocoa, Fla.

Family and community members said police offered very little information about what happened in the days after the shooting, and many questioned whether the use of deadly force was warranted.

Brevard County Sheriff’s Office have released a video of the encounter.

Authorities said Deputies Jafet Santiago-Miranda and Carson Hendren were attempting to conduct a follow-up investigation on what they believed was a possible stolen car that had just recently fled from another Deputy in the Cocoa area, according to the Facebook post.

It was not clear how long the deputies had been following the car.

The deputies got out of their cars “in an attempt to make contact with the occupants,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in the Facebook post.

The video showed the car backing out of the driveway and moving in the direction of the deputies, whose cruisers were parked on each side of the street.

Teenagers Killed By Florida Sheriff’s family demands answers

Natalie Jackson, an attorney for Pierce’s aunt, and family members said a family friend loaned the car to the boys. At a rally Saturday, lawyers for the families blamed the deputies for not running a check on the car’s license plate before attempting to stop it with guns drawn.

Santiago-Miranda fired his service weapon at least nine times.

Ivey said in the Facebook post that two guns were found in the car. It’s unclear who had the weapons or whether they were used to threaten the deputies.

The families contend that the video shows Crooms trying to avoid the deputy.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s involved have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

After Crooms was laid to rest, Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney, said the two teenagers lives mattered.

“I want us to continue to say that until Sheriff (Wayne) Ivey hears us every day to the point where they cannot ignore Black lives being taken unnecessarily at the hands of these people who are supposed to be trained to preserve life, not to take life,” Crump said.