by: WESH
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COCOA, Fla. (WESH)—Two teenagers, a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old, are dead after they were shot Friday by a Brevard County sheriff’s deputy, the sheriff’s office confirmed Monday.
The shooting happened around 10:30 a.m. in the area of Stetson Drive and Ivy Drive in Cocoa. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it was investigating a shooting involving a Brevard deputy, but until late Monday afternoon, no further details had been released.
Deputies said the shooting happened as they were looking for a vehicle that fled from a traffic stop at U.S.1 and State Road 528.
Officials said deputies made contact with a vehicle in the area of Stetson Drive and Ivy Drive in Cocoa and that is when the shooting happened. It’s unclear if that vehicle was the one that had fled from the traffic stop or what prompted the deputy to open fire.
Two people in the vehicle were shot and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Deputies identified them Monday as 16-year-old Anthony Crooms, and 18-year-old Sincere Pierce. Both were from Cocoa.
WESH 2 News spoke with Crooms family. They told WESH 2’s Kelsi Thorud his name is actually Angelo. They said they still have questions for the sheriff’s office about what happened Friday.
“I want answers. I want to know why. I want to know what led up to them having to fatally shoot my son and kill him dead,” Tasha Strachan said. “Anything I’ve heard, I’ve heard from the streets. I have heard nothing from the police. I haven’t talked to the police. I don’t know what’s their side of the story.”
Officials said they are not identifying the deputy involved in the shooting, who has been placed on paid administrative leave.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.
A woman named 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 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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