Attorney: Deputy lied about why he fatally shot unarmed man
Source: Associated Press
Terry Spencer, Associated Press Updated 12:39 pm, Tuesday, February 14, 2017
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An attorney representing the parents of an unarmed man killed by a sheriff's sergeant told a federal jury Tuesday that the blood, ballistic and photographic evidence will show the sergeant lied about what caused the shooting.
Attorney Wallace McCall also said during opening statements of Seth Adams' family's lawsuit against Sgt. Michael Custer and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that sheriff's administrators failed to do a fair investigation of the May 16, 2012, shooting and perhaps colluded to destroy evidence. The shooting happened just before midnight as Adams returned from a bar to his garden shop, where he lived on the property with his brother and sister-in-law.
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Both sides agree that Custer, wearing civilian clothing, pulled into the nursery parking lot about 11 p.m. He parked his unmarked black Ford SUV, but left the motor running and turned off the lights. He was supervising a team trying to capture a gang of ATM thieves, all of them white males in their 20s, like Adams. Barranco said that while Adams had no involvement with that gang, Custer, who is also white, had no way of knowing that or that Adams lived on the property when he arrived 40 minutes later.
Custer is expected to testify Adams began yelling profanities at him "as loud as a person could" and demanded to know who he was without identifying himself as a resident. Custer told investigators he identified himself as a sheriff's deputy, but Adams again cursed him, said he had no right to be there and started walking quickly toward him.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Attorney-Deputy-lied-about-why-he-fatally-shot-10931628.php
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Adams, left, Custer, right. [/center]
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