Florida Police Shoot Unarmed Man in the Face Over Marijuana
Police officials in Florida are are taking forceful action to eliminate the streets of cannabis, a drug that voters across the state are looking to legalize for medicinal practices in 2016.
Derek Cruice, 26, was stated to have no weapon on him when a law official working for the Volusia County Sheriff’s Department fatally wounded him with a gunshot to the face last week in the middle of a bust, according to a report from The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
On the morning of march 4th, a SWAT team appeared outside the home of where Cruice was living with five other individuals. The report shows that Cruice had been a person of interest of an ongoing drug investigation, which gave access to police officials obtaining a search warrant to legally inspect the grounds .
When officers made their efforts to gain access inside the house at 6:30 a.m., a few of the individuals living in the house scrambled from their respective rooms and they were approached by an armed officer near the front exit. This is when one of the first law officials who entered the house, Deputy Todd Raible, saw Cruice and identified his reaction to be threatening and shot him to the ground with a single bullet to the face.
The News-Journal stated that Cruice was said to have died at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial.
An investigation of the home revealed nine ounces of pot, scales, paraphernalia and a good amount of cash lying around, but Cruice’s roommates stated that he was not resisting the police in any way when the officer shot him. Matt Grady, who opened the door for the officers, released he heard the gunshot within moments of officers putting him on the floor. Another roommate, Steven Cochran who is 24 years of age, stated he witnessed the terror unfold, and Cruice was not resisting or trying to put up any kind of fight.
“He had no weapons on him or in the house,” Cochran said. “Nobody was making any kind of resistance or keeping them from doing their job. He is not the kind of person that would do that [attack a deputy].”
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Department is not releasing much about the situation. All that Sheriff Ben Johnson would announce to reporters was that “deputies were met with resistance and a shooting occurred” and that Deputy Raible had been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in these type of events .
According to StoptheDrugWar.org, Derek Cruice is the tenth person to die this year as a result of the domestic War on Drugs.
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