Police Officers Fired Over Repo Incident in Alabama

Three Police officers were fired by the mayor of the city of Dectur after they were responding to a repossession, resulting in the shooting death of the suspect. 

Stephen Perkins, 39, was fatally shot on September 29 after officials said he “brandished a handgun” with a light “towards an officer with the Decatur Police Department,” according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. 

Decatur police were initially called to Perkins’ home after he allegedly pulled a handgun on a tow truck driver as he was attempting to repossess a vehicle at the 39-year-old’s home. 

Officers arrived at the scene with the tow truck driver, which is when Perkins “exited the residence armed with a handgun and began to threaten the tow truck driver,” according to police. 

The officers claimed that they ordered the suspect to drop his weapon. But according to the police chief no such order was given.  

“We now know the officer identified themselves as ‘police’ and ordered Mr. Perkins to ‘get on the ground’ prior to the officer firing rather than ordering him to drop the weapon at that time as we initially reported the morning of the shooting,” said the police chief. “That means that we also erred in stating Mr. Perkins ‘refused’ to drop his firearm prior to the shooting. I apologize for the inaccurate description of the encounter in our initial statement.”  

The family of Perkins said that he did not owe money on the vehicle, having financial receipts as proof.  Source: michiganchronicle.com