Family of 15-year-old killed by Gulfport police hires high-profile civil rights attorney

The family of Jaheim McMillan, who was fatally shot by police on Oct. 6, has retained prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.

Crump has represented other families of Black people killed by police across the U.S., including Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and others.

“This child had his whole life ahead of him, but bullets from those officers took all possibility of that away in an instant,” Crump said in a press release. “While much remains unknown about this case, we fully intend to put pressure on officials in Mississippi until this family gets the answers they need and deserve. We are calling for officials to release any and all video footage of the incident so that we can see with our own eyes what transpired on that tragic night.”

Since the shooting, McMillan’s family has pushed police for answers and have hosted peaceful protests outside of the Gulfport Police Department and have maintained that the 15-year-old Gulfport High freshman was unarmed.

Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper and police records from the case shooting say that McMillan was armed with a gun and an officer asked him to drop his weapon outside of a Family Dollar store on Pass Road last week. When McMillan didn’t comply with the demand and turned toward police with the weapon in his hand, Cooper said an officer shot him.

McMillan died from an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Four others have been arrested in connection to the incident.

Jaheim’s mother, Katrina Mateen, and other members of Gulfport’s Black community are asking to see the body cam footage from the shooting.

“I just wanna know why,” Mateen told the Sun Herald on Tuesday. “Why did they have to shoot my son?”

Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 13, 2022 at 3:47 PM.