NEW CASTLE, Del. (KYW Newsradio) — Members of a Delaware community are asking for federal officials to investigate the death of an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by police last week.
Tremaine Jackson, 28, was shot and killed by Delaware state police officers in New Castle on August 31, after he was caught shoplifting from a Lowe's home improvement store.
“He seen the police when he came out, and he took the stuff back. Some 10 minutes later he wound up dead, shot in the chest,” said Richard Clark, president of the Delaware NAACP, who addressed reporters in front of the Lowe's location.
“We’re here not to announce a lawsuit but to ask for transparency from the state police,” said attorney Emeka Igwe, who represents Island Clark, the mother of Jackson’s three sons.
“We have not seen any information that would warrant deadly force,” Igwe told reporters. “When you use deadly force, you take away not just that life but the life of a father of three kids and you affect generations to come.”
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Igwe says from necessary details of the shooting to unreleased body cam footage, police have so far shown a lack of transparency.
“We’re asking for the state to recuse itself from investigating this case,” he said. “Normally when there’s a law enforcement shooting in Delaware the attorney general’s office issues a use of force report. In this case we believe there could be a conflict since the officers involved were agents of the state.
The Delaware NAACP has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice to ask them to conduct their own investigation into what happened. "We also ask that the officers who fired the fatal shot be investigated and be held accountable for their actions," said the Delaware NAACP's Coby Owens.
Delaware State Police said Jackson had resisted arrest and placed officers in imminent danger. KYW Newsradio contacted police regarding his family’s concerns of transparency, but did not receive an immediate response.