BILOXI (10 MAY 2021) Read the full article Activists demand answers after Black baby killed in shootout
Black Lives Matter Mississippi are calling for the release of police body camera footage of what happened in a May 3rd killing of 3-month-old infant La’Mello Parker near Biloxi, Mississippi.
Eric Derrell Smith, La’Mello’s father, in a domestic dispute, lead police on a chase and standoff in which Smith and the La’Mello were killed.
“We want to have a coherent, truthful conversation about what happened and how this could have been avoided. Period,” Anastassia Doctor, a Black Lives Matter Mississippi board member and Army veteran, told The Associated Press Monday. “If this was a white man with a white child, would they have done the same thing?”
Before Smith and La’Mello were killed, Smith led police on a chase across state lines. The pursuit was joined by more than a dozen officers from the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Gulfport Police Department and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department.
A video taken by a bystander shows the final barrage of gunfire after more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles pursued Smith’s car. Police told WLOX-TV that both Smith and officers fired weapons.
An autopsy determined that La’Mello Parker died of a single gunshot wound. The coroner of Harrison County, Mississippi. Biloxi police are investigating because none of that department’s officers were involved.
