by: WESH
Posted:
/ Updated:
COCOA, Fla. (WESH) — The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday released dashcam video showing the fatal shooting of two teenagers by deputies last week.
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Authorities say 16-year-old A.J. Crooms and 18-year-old Sincere Pierce were fatally shot by deputies who were conducting a stolen car investigation. The shooting happened Friday around 10:30 a.m. in the area of Stetson Drive and Ivy Drive in Cocoa.
The dash camera video shows the car turn into a driveway as it is being followed by deputies. When the car turns into the driveway, the deputies get out of their patrol cars, but the driver backs out and turns around.
In a Facebook post, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said the video shows the driver of the car, Crooms, accelerating toward the deputy.
Ivey said the deputies asked the driver to stop the car to stop seven times before the shots were fired.
“Angelo Crooms turns and accelerates the vehicle toward Deputy Santiago-Miranda who was then forced to fire his service weapon in an attempt to stop the deadly threat of the car from crashing into him,” Ivey’s Facebook post said.
Ivey also said investigators found two firearms inside the vehicle. It remains unclear if the vehicle Crooms and Pierce were in is the vehicle deputies said ran a traffic stop earlier in the day.
Both of the deputies involved were identified by the sheriff’s office on Tuesday. They are Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 2017, and Deputy Carson Hendren, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 2018.
Both deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the case.
Famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Monday that he is representing the families of the two teenagers killed. Crump issued a statement Monday night saying the families knew very little about the events leading up to the shooting.
Cynthia Green says she’s the mother of one of the victims. Green told WESH 2 News that her son was picked up by some friends around 10:30 a.m.
She says he got in the car, he and his friends started driving away and turned the corner onto Stetson Drive. Green says, all of a sudden, deputies pulled up behind them and told them to get out of the car.
“‘Get out the f— car.’ I said, ‘No, don’t shoot them. Please don’t shoot them. My baby is in that car, he just got in here.’ He hadn’t been in there but two minutes. Not even a good hot minute,” Green said.
She says that’s when two deputies fired at the vehicle. Green said she saw her 18-year-old son get shot and turn lifeless.
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