Protestors carry a sign reading “Justice for E.J.” during a protest at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018. A police shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. of Hueytown while responding to a shooting at the mall on Thanksgiving evening. Police said Bradford was fleeing the scene with a weapon. Hoover police initially told reporters Bradford had shot a teen at the mall, but later retracted the statement. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
HOOVER, Ala. – The Latest on the fatal shooting at an Alabama mall (all times local):
9:50 p.m.
The father of a black man killed by a police officer during an Alabama mall shooting says his son had a permit to carry a weapon for self-defense.
Twenty-one-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. was fatally shot by a police officer responding to the Thanksgiving night shooting that wounded an 18-year-old and 12-year-old. Hoover police initially thought Bradford, who was carrying a handgun, was responsible. Authorities later said it was unlikely that Bradford had done the shooting.
Bradford's father, Emantic Bradford Sr., spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday night from his family's home. He said it was hurtful that police portrayed his son as the shooter.
The family wants to know if there is police body camera footage from the shooting. Hoover police have not confirmed to the Associated Press whether such footage exists.
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2:25 p.m.
About 200 people marched through an Alabama shopping mall to protest the shooting death of a man whom police erroneously believed was the gunman who shot and wounded two people.
The protesters gathered at the spot at the Riverchase Galleria mall in suburban Birmingham where 21-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. was shot and killed by a police officer who was responding to reports of gunfire.
Police initially thought Bradford was responsible for shooting two people at the mall but later retracted that statement. They later said it was unlikely that Bradford had done the shooting.
Police are now searching for a gunman who they believed shot and wounded an 18-year-old male and a 12-year-old bystander.
The protesters held a moment of silence for Bradford at the spot where he was killed. Bradford's stepmother Cynthia described him as a respectful young man and said he was the son of a Birmingham police officer.
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10 p.m.
Police say a man shot and killed by a police officer at an Alabama shopping mall was "likely" not the person who shot a teenager that evening.
Twenty-one-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford was shot and killed by a police officer responding to the Thanksgiving night shooting that wounded an 18-year-old and 12-year-old.
Captain Gregg Rector said in a Friday news release that new evidence suggests that while Bradford "may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim."
Police said that an officer shot Bradford because he was seen "brandishing a handgun" while fleeing the scene.
Rector said they now believe that more than two individuals were involved in the altercation that started the shooting and a gunman is at large.
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6:39 a.m.
A man was shot and killed by a police after a fight at an Alabama mall resulted in gunfire that injured a teen and a 12-year-old girl.
A police statement said the shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, outside Birmingham.
The statement said two Hoover officers in the mall confronted a 21-year-old man from Hueytown with a gun and one of the officers shot and killed him. His name has not been released.
An 18-year-old was taken to a Birmingham hospital for treatment of serious injuries.
Capt. Greg Rector said in a news conference a 12-year-old girl struck by gunfire was hospitalized. She was reported in stable condition at Children's Hospital.
A mall security officer said the mall reopened at 6 a.m. Friday.
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This story corrects dead man's age to 21.
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