ORLANDO, Fla. – The family of Derek Diaz, along with attorneys Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson, held a news conference Saturday in Orlando to demand the release of body-worn camera video recorded in Diaz’s fatal shooting by police.
“I never understand why, when the taxpayers pay all of this money for bodycam videos for this very instant — for this very instant, to be able to see what happened — why police come up with so many excuses and why we accept them when we all know the very purpose we have bodycam videos is for transparency,” 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 (police) come up with arbitrary reasons to delay, delay, delay. What is it? They’re trying to get their story right? Why do we have delay? The video is going to be the same no matter what, so release the video.”
Diaz, 26, died after being shot by an Orlando police officer early Monday in the area of Jefferson Street and North Orange Avenue. According to statements from the department and its chief, Eric Smith, officers were “doing proactive patrol” in an area police described as “a hotspot for criminal activity where we have seized a lot guns over the last several months” — and suspected Diaz, who was driving a car, of being involved in drug activity.
“The officers were doing a drug investigation and basically, the person who is the suspect, made a quick movement as to retrieve a firearm and the shooting happened,” Smith said.
Diaz was pronounced dead at a hospital.
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Leading up to the “quick movement,” police said that Diaz disobeyed the commands of the officers, one of whom then shot him. No gun was found in the vehicle with Diaz, but drugs were recovered in the investigation, according to Smith. News 6 has otherwise not heard back from Orlando police regarding questions over what drugs were found, and where.
Sonja Nava, the mother of Diaz’s daughter, told News 6 earlier this week that the entire family is heartbroken and was still being kept in the dark.
“All we know is what we’ve seen on the news. They haven’t said anything. We don’t know, like, what happened. We don’t like how many times they shot him. We don’t know where they shot him. We don’t know how he died, like if he suffered. We don’t know anything,” Nava said.
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Nava said the family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.
The officer who shot Diaz is on paid administrative leave, per protocol, as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates. Smith acknowledged on Monday that he had seen the body-worn camera video of the shooting, which the department said in a statement would be made available within 30 days.
At the conference, Crump, Jackson and Diaz’s loved ones — including Nava, as well Diaz’s brother and his mother — said that the family wanted to see the footage before the funeral as a matter of closure and transparency alike.
“I want to know what happened. We have the right to know,” said Yaneri Diaz Rodriguez, Derek Diaz’s mother.
Jordan Claxton, Diaz’s 15-year-old brother, described Derek as a great person and genuine.
“If you needed anything, if he could give it to you, he would,” Claxton said.
Crump said that searching for justification in shooting first and asking questions later sets a bad precedent.
“We want to see the video because we want to hold police officers accountable if they kill people unjustifiably, so preferably — not even hopefully — preferably it can prevent your loved one from being killed unnecessarily, unjustifiably, by the police. That’s all we’re asking,” Crump said. “We’re not trying to attack police or do anything like that, this family honestly wants to know the truth. Is that so much to ask Orlando police? For the family, and your citizens, to see the truth?”
Jackson, who mentioned a history working on cases involving Orlando police, said that it’s only a matter of justice to fully inform the loved ones of someone killed under such circumstances.
“In many cases when working with Attorney Crump, we’ve been able to allow the family to see the video with the police department even if they don’t want to release it to the public yet,” Jackson said. “They deserve to see the police report, they deserve to see the video. This is a family that does not know anything about what happened except for what was reported in the media, and as we know, what was reported in the media was a distortion of the facts just by the contradiction of what was said. For instance, it was said that he was reaching for a gun, however there was no weapon found. So, those are the things that the family is hearing, that’s the questionable things that we’re hearing from the police department, so instead of telling us what you think we should know or what you think we should view the evidence as, release the video. Let this family see it. Release the video. Let this family see what is going on before they put their loved one to rest.”
Watch the news conference again in the media player below:
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