Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. has been identified as the 21-year-old United States Army officer that was shot and killed by police around 10 p.m. on Thursday, November 22, in the Riverchase Galleria mall.
According to reports, Bradford was shot and killed by a Hoover Police Department at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, which is a Birmingham suburb.
At the time of the shooting, police said that Bradford got into an altercation at the mall and opened fire, injuring two people ages 18 and 12. However, it was later revealed that Bradford was not the shooter and that the true gunman remained at large.
While police initially believed that Bradford Jr. was the shooter, investigators determined that he was not the gunman after conducting forensic tests and talking to witnesses.
“This information indicates that there is at least one gunman still at large,” Hoover Police Capt. Gregg Rector said.
At this time, the true gunman is still at large and police have not provided a name or description.
via Fox 43:
Police say it [the shooting] started with a confrontation. An 18-year-old was shot twice in the torso, and a 12-year-old girl, a bystander, was shot once, Rector said. Both were taken to hospitals.
A Hoover police officer who was working security at the mall confronted an armed man running from the scene and fatally shot him, authorities said. But the next day, Hoover police released a statement that the man they confronted and shot, Bradford, was no longer believed to have fired the shots that hit the two people.
That police would so quickly rescind their account is unusual, former FBI Assistant Director Thomas Fuentes said Saturday. But because new information pointed to a gunman on the loose, they had to do so for the public’s sake, he said.
In the days following the deadly shooting, the Hoover community has rallied around Bradford Jr.’s family, as over 200 people joined them in a protest outside of the mall, demanding action.
Following the shooting, the Hoover Police Department said they are conducting an internal investigation and that the officer involved, who still remains unidentified, has been placed on administrative leave.
Bradford Jr’s family has reportedly hired a prominent civil rights lawyer in the aftermath of Emantic’s death.
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