‘Mississippi justice’: Feds should investigate shooting of black man by Coast cop, NAACP says
The NAACP is calling for a federal criminal investigation into the officer-involved shooting death of Toussaint Diamon Sims to determine if there were any civil rights violations.
“We are going to utilize the federal government to find some type of proper justification for Sims’ death,” Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, said Monday. “What we are saying basically is the whole situation stinks and the decision made by the (Jackson County) grand jury didn’t remove all the odor.”
The NAACP is calling what happened to Sims another form of “Mississippi justice.”
“You have another black man gunned down by a white policeman while he was fleeing for his life,” Clark said. “Diamon didn’t display a gun in a threatening manner to the police. The mere fact that they (police) saw a gun gave them ‘cover’ to use lethal force.”
The NAACP and attorneys for the Sims’ family argue there was no justification for the shooting because Sims was running from police when Moss Point Police Sgt. Lancen Shipman shot and killed Sims.
“At no time did the body camera show Diamon Sims pointing a weapon toward Officer Shipman in a threatening manner,” he said.
Sims, 27, of Moss Point, died Aug. 8 of multiple gunshot wounds to the “back and neck,” according to the NAACP.
A Jackson County grand jury ruled the killing a justifiable homicide, clearing Shipman of any criminal wrongdoing.
The shooting happened in the aftermath of a police pursuit that began in Pascagoula and ended in Moss Point.
Police considered Sims armed and dangerous because he had a history of arrests in Moss Point and surrounding communities. At the time of his death, he was wanted on three felony warrants and three misdemeanor warrants.
Moss Point police released Shipman’s body-camera footage after the grand jury ruling. The footage shows what happened from the time police first encountered Sims at a Pascagoula convenience store until his death in Moss Point.
The call for a federal probe comes in the aftermath a meeting between the Jackson County NAACP and the District Attorney’s Office.
“After out meeting with the district attorney, we were not satisfied,” Clark said. “I really don’t want to go into details.”
The NAACP is also questioning whether police altered the body-camera footage.
“We want to see the unedited version of the video,” Clark said.
Moss Point Police Chief Brandon Ashley told the Sun Herald it was impossible for them to alter the video, other than to blur a face. The camera , he said, shoots 30 frames a second and each one is time-stamped and tied to an algorithm.
Though he’s been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, Ashley said Shipman will face disciplinary action because he failed to turn on the body camera audio until after the fatal shooting.
Any other violations are pending the results of an internal investigation.
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 2:34 PM.
