ORLANDO, Fla. — Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and the family of Derek Diaz, an unarmed man who was fatally shot by an Orlando police officer on Monday, demanded that the department release body camera footage of the incident at a press conference Saturday morning.
“[The family] has one burning question: What happened to Derek Diaz?” Crump said, standing beside members of Diaz’s family, who were holding signs that read “Justice for Derek Diaz” below a photo the of the 26-year-old father. “They want the truth. They have a right to know the truth. We are here making an appeal of transparency.”
So far, the only information about the shooting has come from a brief statement by Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith at a press conference less that three hours after it occurred Monday morning.
Smith said at approximately 1:52 a.m., Diaz was pulled over by an officer in the heart of downtown, just a few blocks west of Lake Eola Park. At the time, officers were proactively patrolling the downtown area, namely Jefferson Street and North Orange Avenue, which Smith called “a hot spot for criminal activity where we have seized a lot of guns over the last several months.”
Smith stated that the officer had reason to believe Diaz was “involved in drug activity” — the probable cause used to justify the stop. It’s unclear, however, what gave police that impression. The chief said drugs were recovered, but it’s not been stated whose possession those drugs were in.
The chief said during the stop Diaz “disobeyed the commands given by the officer and made a movement as if to retrieve a gun.”
That’s when the cop shot him.
Diaz was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead less than two hours later.
Smith said no gun had been recovered at the scene.
OPD in the days since the shooting has not provided an update on whether it remains the case that no gun was found in Diaz’s car. The department has referred all questions about the incident to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which is investigating the officer’s use of deadly force at the request of OPD.
“Agents are conducting interviews with officers and witnesses, and our forensic scientists are processing evidence,” FDLE spokesperson Dana Kelly said Friday in an email to the Orlando Sentinel. “The investigation is active and we do not have additional information to share at this time.”
According to the FDLE website, the agency “as a routine does not comment on a specific case or provide names associated with the investigation… Local agencies are able to provide information at their discretion.”
In a statement to the Sentinel, OPD spokesperson Andrea Otero said on Friday that the city police department is not providing more details about the case in an effort to maintain the investigation’s integrity. She said the body camera footage will be released within 30 days of the incident, in accordance with OPD policy.
“We are committed to being transparent with our community and assure you that our commitment has not changed,” Otero said. “Once the body worn camera is able to be released, we will share it with the community.”
Crump, who announced he was representing the family on Wednesday, questioned the police department’s motivations in waiting to publish the video or share it privately with the family before releasing it to the public.
“It’s for transparency … that’s what it’s about, everybody being able to see what happened so we can determine whether the police were justified or not justified in taking a human life,” Crump said. “It’s infuriating when we look at families and they say, ‘Why can’t we see what happened to our loved one,’ and they come up with arbitrary reasons to delay, delay, delay.”
“Why do we have a delay?” he continued. “The video is going to be the same no matter what, so release the video. It’s not a hard demand that this family is asking.”
Following Crump’s comments was a brief chant by the attorney and Diaz’s family in English and Spanish: “Release the video. Ver el vídeo. Release the video. Ver el vídeo. Release the video.”
Diaz had just finished HVAC school when he was fatally shot, Crump said.
Fifteen-year-old Jordan Claxton said his last words to his older brother, Derek Diaz, were in a text asking him to bring home cookies. That was just a few hours before the shooting.
Diaz is also the father of a 5-year-old girl. Sonja Nava, the mother of Diaz’s only child, said, “My daughter, she keeps asking for her dad, and I don’t know what to tell her.”
To help pay for Diaz’s funeral, the family created a GoFundMe; so far $8,425 has been raised.
Diaz’s mother, Yaneri Diaz Rodriguez, said she and her family want to see the video before his funeral.
“I want to know what happened,” she said. “We have a right no know.”
