A Florida sheriff called for calm after a 28-year-old unarmed black man in a stolen car was shot and critically wounded early on Monday by a white officer, after witness reports that the man had his hands up and amid racially charged protests nationwide about police violence.
“I ask everyone to not rush to judgment and allow the investigation to be completed,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a news conference in Orlando. Demings, who himself is African American and was surrounded by six religious leaders from the black community, said investigators have found some eyewitness accounts that conflict with that of the officer involved. Witnesses at the apartment complex said that the men had their hands up when the deputy opened fire, according to local media reports.
Cities across the United States have seen major protests in recent days after grand juries declined to indict anyone in the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
