Protests continue over deadly police shooting; vigil planned Thursday

Oct. 3—Calls for more police transparency were among the demands of people outside Decatur City Hall on Sunday and Monday, protesting the killing of a Black man by a Decatur police officer.

"We want transparency," Cornelius Echols said Monday. "Withholding information doesn't do anything but draw suspicion."

Echols was one of about 20 people gathered at the entrance to the Decatur Police Department on Monday morning to protest the shooting death of 39-year-old Stephen Clay Perkins early Friday morning. Monday's gathering was a continuation of Sunday's protest attended by around 100 people.

A vigil for Perkins is planned in front of the Decatur Police Department at City Hall on Lee Street Northeast on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

According to police, a tow truck driver was trying to repossess Perkins' vehicle from his Ryan Drive Southwest home shortly before 1:30 a.m. Friday and Perkins confronted him holding a gun.

Police said they met with the tow truck driver and then accompanied him back to Perkins' home.

"The homeowner exited the residence armed with a handgun and began to threaten the tow truck driver," police said. "Officers on scene ordered the homeowner to drop his weapon, which he refused to do. It was at this time the homeowner turned the gun towards one of the officers on scene. The officer discharged his duty weapon, striking the subject."

Perkins died at Huntsville Hospital, police said.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has taken over the investigation.

According to ALEA, Perkins was "armed with a handgun which was also equipped with a light. During the course of the incident Perkins brandished the weapon towards an officer with the Decatur Police Department, causing the officer to fire at Perkins."

An across-the-street neighbor and friend of Perkins said 16 bullets hit his house. A statement from Perkins' family said seven bullets struck Perkins.

Echols, a member of an NAACP-affiliated legal redress team, spoke in his personal capacity Monday morning about Perkins' death.

"Police don't get involved with civil matters," he said. "The only way they should come out and assist a person towing a vehicle is if they have a court order from a judge. They had no place or business there anyway. And then they had the wrong house from the start."

A letter dated Sept. 29 from Brenton Lipscomb, who says he is serving as a spokesman for the Perkins family, claims there was no cause for the attempted repossession:

"While there are a lot of rumors circulating, the family has found financial receipts proving Clay's monthly payments were processed through his financing company and no evidence of Clay's vehicle being in an active status of repossession, therefore indicating, the towing company and City of Decatur Police Department wrongfully appeared at Clay's home."

The letter pleads with city officials and police to be transparent.

"The family has not received footage of Clay's deadly encounter from the City of Decatur's police department or Alabama Law Enforcement department," Lipscomb wrote.

The Decatur Daily on Monday submitted a public records request to the city seeking the release of officers' body camera footage during the incident.

The Decatur Police Department released a statement Monday afternoon from Chief Todd Pinion. In the statement, Pinion said he cannot release any evidence to the public.

"It would be improper and irresponsible for me to comment on the evidence in this case and (I) cannot legally release any evidence in the case," he said.

According to Pinion, custody of the body camera video recordings belongs to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is investigating the shooting.

Pinion said he recognizes that many people in the community are mourning the loss of Perkins, and that he respects the public's right to protest.

"Please understand that I am in a difficult position of trying to juggle the public's demands for transparency and adhering to the rules of criminal procedure while not jeopardizing the integrity of the investigation," he said.

A neighbor's doorbell video captured the shooting and some of the activity leading up to it. A recording appears to show police taking defensive positions prior to engaging Perkins. One officer was hunched behind a neighbor's vehicle in their driveway across the street.

Aneesah Saafiyah, who sat outside the Police Department on Monday with a sign saying "Justice for Steve," said she's known Perkins and his family for at least 10 years. She spoke about him in the present tense.

"He's a family man, he's always with his wife or his daughters or his brother and his friends," she said. "He's a highly emotional, intelligent man. He's very funny. He lights up a room."

She fondly recalled biting off more than she could chew on a weight machine at Crunch Fitness. Perkins, who frequented gyms and was a personal trainer, came up to her and lightly teased her for not drinking enough water.

"Now you know you need to be drinking water," Saafiyah, with a smile, recalled him saying. "That's why you're over here struggling."

Saafiyah said the Perkins family and those around them are a close-knit group.

"Decatur is not Madison. We're not Huntsville. We've all grown up with each other, or all went to school with each other, or he went to school with my sibling, or my sibling went to school with his younger sibling, our parents went to school together, etc. — we all know each other. So, if you tell us something about another person and we know that's not how that other person is, you're going to have to prove it."

"It's sad no matter who it was," Echols said. "You can't help but to be upset. No matter what the skin color. If you have a heart and you are genuine and you have humane feelings inside of you, it has to upset you. You know what I mean. It has to."

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.