The mother of an Oakland barber who was shot and killed by two Oakland police officers in a confrontation on Nov. 8 said Tuesday that she's "very disappointed" that the Alameda County District Attorney's Office will not file any charges against the officers.
Nellie Jones, the mother of 37-year-old Derrick Jones, who was unarmed in the incident, said her son was "nothing but a scared man who didn't want to come into contact with police."
Assistant District Attorney Richard Klemmer said in a 12-page report made public Tuesday that Officers Omar Daza-Quiroz and Eriberto Perez-Angeles were justified in shooting Derrick Jones near the 5800 block of Bancroft Avenue in East Oakland because they had a reason to believe that he had a gun and posed a threat to their lives. Klemmer said it appears that the two officers "actually and reasonably believed they were in imminent danger of great bodily injury or death" and "there is a lack of evidence to support a prosecution against either officer."
Klemmer said Jones fled on foot from the officers after they responded to a woman's report that he had tried to strangle her and that he ignored repeated orders to surrender and show his hands. The report says that at one point Daza-Quiroz saw what looked like a metal object in Jones' hands and thought it was a gun.
At another point, Daza-Quiroz "heard a metal object drop, hit and slide in the area where Mr. Jones was running" and thought Jones might have thrown a gun away but suspected that Jones was still armed with a gun, Klemmer said.
The report says the officers shot at Jones because he was reaching into his waistband, which they thought indicated that he was reaching for a gun. No weapon was found at the scene, but officers found a small metal scale and a small amount of marijuana, the report said.
Klemmer said, "Witnesses corroborate the officers' recount of the event, including that the officers repeatedly and clearly shouted for Mr. Jones to stop running and to show his hands and remove his hands from his pockets."
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Jones' death prompted a number of protest marches by community members and activist groups such as By Any Means Necessary who alleged that the officers shouldn't have shot Jones because he was unarmed.
Because of the community members' concerns, Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts has asked the FBI to do an independent investigation of the shooting.
