ORLANDO, Fla. – Family and friends of a man shot and killed by Orlando police earlier this month will be saying their final goodbyes on Friday during a funeral service.
Derek Diaz, 26, was fatally shot in downtown Orlando on July 3. Two funeral services will be held on Friday, one in Orlando and another in the afternoon in Palm Bay.
According to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith, officers were proactively patrolling the area, calling it a hotspot for criminal activity, and believed that Diaz was involved in drug activity. Police said that Diaz disobeyed commands of officers and one of them shot him because he made a “quick movement” as if to retrieve a firearm. Diaz was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Body camera videos were released this week showing the events leading to the shooting.
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Diaz’s family and attorneys held a news conference following the release of the videos and said they were left with more questions than answers.
“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,” said attorney Natalie Jackson.
One of the videos showed several officers approach a vehicle, which Diaz was sitting in, and ask him to turn off the car. He is seen holding his phone and another item in his hands before the officer asks him to put both hands on the steering wheel.
Video shows the officer then opening the door and telling Diaz to put his hands on the steering wheel again. Diaz is seen in the video with one hand in the air while opening the center console of the vehicle.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel, put your hands on the steering wheel,” the officer yells before gunshots are heard in the video.
Drugs were recovered during the investigation, according to Smith, but Orlando police have still not said what drugs were found, or where.
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.”
The family set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.
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