DENVER (KDVR) — The family of the man a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed outside Main Event in Highlands Ranch while responding to a separate shooting has called for video footage from his shooting to be released.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday said the public defender representing the woman in that separate shooting, Neveaha Crawley-Sanders, had filed a notice of intent to file an objection to releasing this video and other audio recordings. Crawley-Sanders is charged in Douglas County with shooting another woman in the entertainment venue’s restroom on Feb. 8.
The agency said the first-responding deputy saw a man, now identified as 23-year-old Jalin Seabron of Arapahoe County, outside the Main Event with a gun. The deputy shot Seabron after the man had turned toward him and defied orders to drop the gun, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office itself had said the agency wanted to release the footage that “shows the first deputy on scene acted to protect himself and others from grave and immediate danger” when he shot and killed Seabron, but an attorney representing Seabron’s family says the video “does not support the Sheriff’s claims that this was shooting was justified and reasonable.”
The Sheriff’s Office’s characterization of events has changed multiple times over the past week. The footage, which Mr. Seabron’s mother and attorney Glover have viewed, does not support the Sheriff’s claims that this was shooting was justified and reasonable. From what they were shown, there is not sufficient evidence that Mr. Seabron pointed a weapon at anyone, turned to face officers, nor disobeyed orders before being fatally shot.”
Tyrone Glover Law
The sheriff’s office in the Sunday statement said investigators had determined Seabron was related to the shooting and was an accessory to Crowley-Sanders, but Seabron’s family’s attorney said the family “categorically rejects” that statement.
“This new characterization appears to be an attempt to justify the deputy’s actions after the fact,” the statement from Tyrone Glover Law stated. “The Sheriff’s Office is deliberately conflating two separate incidents and attempting to retroactively justify the shooting of an innocent man. The public deserves to see this evidence!”
The Tyrone Glover Law statement said Seabron’s family, which includes his mother and pregnant girlfriend, “will pursue all available legal remedies to ensure justice for Jalin and to hold the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office accountable for this tragic and unnecessary loss of life.”
