ORLANDO, Fla. – Attorney Natalie Jackson and the family of Derek Diaz held a news conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the release of body-worn camera video showing Diaz’s fatal shooting by Orlando police.
“What we saw on the video left more questions than answers,” Jackson said. “What we saw on the video was what we always knew, that Derek was peacefully — because he’s a peaceful person by all accounts — that an unarmed Derek Diaz was sitting peacefully in a legally parked car when he was aggressively approached by three armed police officers and in less than one minute he was shot and bleeding. So, the family is just really devastated, his mother is not here today, she is sick from what she’s learned and from seeing the video.”
Diaz, 26, was pronounced dead at a hospital after being shot July 3 in the area of Jefferson Street and Orange Avenue by an Orlando police officer “doing proactive patrol” where there was allegedly thought to be drug activity, according to statements from the Orlando Police Department and its chief, Eric Smith. Diaz was in a car, in a parking spot, when body-worn camera video released Wednesday showed officers approach the car and begin talking to him.
The officer who shot Diaz was reacting to a “quick movement” that the 26-year-old made, what Smith said looked as if Diaz was going to “retrieve a firearm,” yet no gun was found in the vehicle. Drugs were recovered during the investigation, according to Smith, but the police department has still not responded to News 6′s questions regarding what drugs were found, or where.
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Regardless of what kind of drugs were recovered, Jackson questioned the officers’ justification to approach Diaz in the first place.
“If the reason was, as we believe, maybe the smell of marijuana, then why would a death sentence be imposed for that?” Jackson said. “...We just keep hearing the word ‘narcotic,’ and I do want to say that Derek did have a medical marijuana card, he suffered with anxiety. So that goes into play when you’re dealing with police officers and when they’re being very aggressive with someone.”
Sonja Nava, the mother of Diaz’s daughter, said that she’s finally told their child what happened to Derek.
“I started speaking with someone yesterday about getting her and myself counseling because I did tell her yesterday that he did pass away and she was upset, she did cry, but she’s 5 years old and I think she’s taking it a little bit better than the adults. It’s still really hard for her to understand though, so I do want to get her counseling to help her process it and make sure that she’s OK and at the same time I’m going to get counseling as well,” Nava said.
Jackson joined Nava and Diaz’s other family members at a news conference Saturday to demand the release of the body-worn camera video, stating they were still being kept in the dark.
Having now seen the video, Nava said that it was sickening to watch, adding the family was offered just a single look with no room for questions before the footage was made public.
“The Orlando Police Department let us view the video only 10 minutes before they released it to the public, we had no time to go over, like, what happened. We were still taking the video in and it was already released to the public just 10 minutes after we had viewed it. All we know from that video is that Derek was sitting in his car, he was not doing anything wrong. Three aggressive officers approached him and he was scared. Less than a minute, like Natalie said, he was dead, they had already shot him. The video was so sickening to watch, I threw up while watching it,” Nava said. “While we were watching it, we were told that they weren’t going to answer any questions, that they wouldn’t let us re-watch it. We got to watch the three videos one time, they said we had to leave and that was it.”
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Shannon Ligon, an Orlando-area attorney speaking as a citizen at the news conference, called for reforms in light of the shooting, specifically that a new look is taken at statewide police training and, beyond that, at stand your ground laws.
“This unfortunately happened on Jefferson Street, where I have practiced for over 15 years. For them to allege that criminal activity and drug activity is occurring here in downtown Orlando is absurd. It’s happening all over our nation just as much as it’s happening in D.C. and Windermere. So for our citizens’ rights to be trampled and our constitutional rights to be overlooked and this family not to be afforded every right to inspect this video, we cannot let this stand. So I ask our citizens and most importantly I ask our governor to take corrective action to not only reform stand your ground laws, but also to address the real concerns of over-policing in our communities, because these families should not have to go through this,” Ligon said.
Activist Lawanna Gelzer announced a demonstration was to take place in front of Orlando City Hall — set for 2 p.m. Monday, July 17 — to echo those calls for reform.
“We’re going in because we’ve seen so much money allocated for police training. Where is the training?” Gelzer said. “...We don’t stand a chance if we’re in our car, if we’re somewhere they don’t want us to be, they are the judge, jury and executioner.”
Nava previously said the family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.
See the news conference again in the video player below:
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