What really happened to Jabari Peoples?

On June 23, 18-year-old Jabari Peoples was fatally shot by the police at a city park in Homewood, Alabama. Peoples was parked with a friend at the Homewood Soccer Park. Around 9:30 p.m., an officer with the Homewood police approached and ordered Peoples and his friend to exit the vehicle.

What happened next is hotly disputed.

According to a statement released by Peoples' family, his vehicle was "approached by an individual in an unmarked vehicle, with no lights, no sirens, and no visible identification." The statement says that Peoples was "not armed," "not aggressive," "did not resist," and "complied" with all instructions from the officer.

A lawyer representing the family, Leroy Maxwell, said that an independent investigator he hired concluded Peoples' "was shot once in the back" and the finding is "consistent with the eyewitness account we have obtained, all of which clearly state that Jabari did not possess a weapon at the time he was approached by the officer."

Maxwell emphasized that Peoples, who graduated from high school in 2024 and worked as a security guard at a local hospital, "was an 18-year-old with a bright future" and had "no history whatsoever of being disrespectful to law enforcement."

The family alleges that they were not informed of Peoples' death until they were "contacted by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office at 10:00 AM the following morning — over 12 hours after Jabari was pronounced dead."

The official police narrative is radically different.

In a statement, the Homewood police said that when the officer approached the vehicle, he "smelled the odor of marijuana." When Peoples exited, according to the statement, the officer "observed a handgun in the door pocket of the open driver’s side door." The officer then "attempted to secure Mr. Peoples in handcuffs to affect an arrest for Unlawful Possession of Marijuana and possible other charges, at which point Mr. Peoples began to actively resist."

According to the police, a "physical struggle ensued, at which point the officer was knocked to the ground." Then, "Mr. Peoples broke away from the officer and retrieved the handgun from the open driver’s side door pocket, creating an immediate deadly threat to the officer." At that point, "[t]he officer, fearing for his safety, fired one round from his service weapon to defend himself." Peoples, police say, "fell to the ground, still gripping the handgun in his right hand."

Police say that emergency aid was administered at the scene. Peoples was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Who is telling the truth? Right now, it is impossible to say. There are simply two conflicting stories.

The Homewood police say that their version of events is "clearly captured on the officer’s body-worn camera." That footage was turned over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), which is investigating the shooting. On June 25, Homewood police said that "arrangements are being made for the family to view the video."

On Tuesday, ALEA released a statement saying it was denying the family's request to release the body camera footage, claiming that doing so would "affect the ongoing investigation." ALEA gave no indication of when, if ever, the body camera footage would be released. Alabama law permits them to withhold the footage as long as it is relevant to any investigation or prosecution, which could be years.

While body cameras have been widely deployed over the last decade to bring a measure of accountability to police, withholding footage in sensitive cases is a common tactic employed by law enforcement. In some cases, when the video is ultimately released, it contradicts or complicates the initial police narrative.

Police closely guard body camera footage

Body camera footage is often difficult to obtain and can be withheld from the public for extended periods of time. A 2023 analysis by ProPublica found that in June 2022, 101 people were killed by law enforcement officers. In 79 of these incidents, body camera footage exists. But over a year later, footage from only 33 of the incidents had been released.

Some cities and states have policies requiring departments to release body camera footage within a specified timeframe. In New York City, for example, the New York Police Department (NYPD) is “supposed to release video within 30 days of a critical incident.” But a 2023 ProPublica analysis found that, at the time, “of 380 such incidents since the policy was enacted, the department released videos only 64 times, and only twice within its own 30-day time frame.”

Without body camera footage, the public must rely on the official narrative released by police departments. But sometimes, when body camera footage is later released, it does not match up with the police account.

In 2023, for example, Tyre Nichols was killed by law enforcement in Memphis. The police report said he “started to fight” with police officers and “at one point grabbed one of their guns,” CNN reported. But body camera footage released weeks later did not show evidence of either claim. The initial report also did not mention that officers punched and kicked Nichols.

In May 2020, George Floyd was killed by law enforcement in Minneapolis, but the body camera footage was not released until August. The police report said Floyd died of “medical distress,” but failed to mention that it was "brought on by an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd experienced seizures and cried out for help,” the ACLU of Wisconsin reported.

In 2014, teenager Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago law enforcement, who later covered up the shooting, lying in the police report and “exaggerat[ing] the threat McDonald posed.” Dash camera footage from the incident, contradicting the original police incident reports, was not released until late 2015.

In other cases, police officers have attempted to hide body camera footage. In 2019, Ronald Greene was killed by law enforcement after a traffic chase. Louisiana law enforcement denied that body camera footage of the incident existed. State troopers “initially told Greene’s family he died on impact after crashing into a tree during the chase,” the Associated Press reported. Later, a police statement acknowledged that he “struggled with troopers.” But two years later, the AP obtained the footage. The footage showed Greene getting beaten, tased, and pulled out of his car and dragged by the ankles. In the video, Greene can be heard screaming, “I’m sorry” and “I