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A boy in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana was the victim of a police-involved shooting. However, despite inquiry from the family, that information was not disclosed to the public until months later.
The town’s sheriff, Joe Lopinto, has only recently confirmed that officers from his department were involved in assaulting 14-year-old, Tre’mall McGee. However, citing child privacy laws he has declined to offer more information … even to the family.
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According to a report from NBC News, the boy’s mother Tiffany McGee, said that she never was told any of the details about what happened to her son.
The findings also reveal that local law enforcement never gave the mother the name of the deputy, the names of the other officers, nor additional aspects of what exactly happened that night.
McGee still has not learned if anyone will be charged.
For his part, Tre’mall said that a friend picked him up in a black Nissan Maxima. He said that he didn’t know that the car was stolen when police pulled them over. Everybody ran. “So,” he said, “I ran.”
He said that as deputies caught up to him, he stopped running and was lifting his arms to comply, “Next thing you know, I got shot.”
The boy was shot in his shoulder.
The initial report of the incident, viewed by NBC News, reportedly describes in detail a pursuit of a car stolen days before and that the Parish Sheriff’s Office was searching for the teens riding in it. However, there was no mention of a shooting, or that anyone was taken to the hospital.
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“To deny the existence or not confirm a deputy shot someone in an arrest is gaslighting, pure and simple,” said Hector Linares, a longtime juvenile public defense attorney now at Loyola University College of Law. “If the facts were favorable to them, they’d be shouting it.”
Even more, telling is that according to the report, at least 12 men and boys have died during an arrest or pursuit by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office since 2015. Every single one was either Black or Latino and three were under the age of 18.
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