Following the public release of body camera footage showing a June traffic stop that culminated in a Shelby County sheriff deputy fatally shooting Jarveon Hudspeth, his family addressed the media, alongside their attorney, Ben Crump.
They pressed for an explanation about why the stop of the 21-year-old was initiated and decried a lack of communication from the Sheriff’s Office following Hudspeth’s death. They also criticized actions taken by the deputy, who was seriously injured during the incident.
“What we were here for is to fight and demand transparency so this broken-hearted mother could know the truth of what happened to her child,” Crump said at a press conference in Memphis.
Released video footage–including redacted body and dash camera clips and a brief clip from a neighbor’s doorbell camera–is from the encounter on themorning of June 24. The body and dash camera footage shows the stop and Hudspeth exiting his vehicle before eventually getting back in and speeding off with the door open as the deputy tries to stop him.
The deputy tells him not to get back in and then the deputy leans into the car and grabs the steering wheel as Hudspeth revs the engine. As the car begins moving, the deputy quickly lifts up his feet and jumps in. Before the body camera footage goes blurry with motion, Hudspeth appears to use his left leg to kick the deputy.
The two-second long doorbell camera shows the car apparently speeding down the wrong side of a residential neighborhood road and what appears to be the deputy being ejected from the driver’s side of the car. His body appears to hit the sidewalk.
According to an initial briefing the day of the stop, officials said the unnamed deputy at some point during “the confrontation inside the vehicle” fired a single shot striking Hudspeth. It is not clear in any of the footage when a shot is fired. Hudspeth had informed the deputy when he initially exited his vehicle that he had a firearm inside.
Hudspeth crashed into a parked car a short distance later, according to law enforcement’s initial report. He was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead. The deputy was hospitalized in critical condition.
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office, which released the video as part of what it says is a new practice to bolster transparency, said it would not comment further on the incident until the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation concludes its investigation.
TBI serves as the fact-finding agency in law enforcement involved shootings.
Crump and Hudspeth’s mother, Charlotte Haggett, said officials owed them more answers, including why Hudspeth was pulled over in the first place. She says she was told the deputy ran her son’s plates but didn’t call it in.
Haggett said for about two days after his death she didn’t know where he was, even though she had reached out to the Sheriff’s Office.
“Finally someone called and said your son was in an accident, and he passed. He’s gone, and that was it,” she said, noting that the traffic stop occurred near their home.
She also criticized initial reports from Sheriff Floyd Bonner that said the deputy was “dragged” for 100 yards. No released footage seems to capture him being dragged.
“Everyone was just…just the way that Sheriff Bonner spoke about it…already had in their mind that my son was a criminal and that he should be dead,” Hudspeth said.
Crump also said the deputy should not have jumped into the car as Hudspeth drove away, calling it “unjustifiable and senseless.”
The Sheriff’s Office declined to comment. In the past, Sheriff Floyd Bonner has called Crump’s remarks regarding the incident “political stunts” that cause “distress for all involved.”
At the press conference, Crump also called for officials to release any footage from the arrest of 19-year-old Courtney Ross, who died after being taken into Memphis Police Department custody earlier this month.
According to an initial report from the MPD, officers approached Ross in a Midtown neighborhood on Aug. 11 after receiving phone calls that he was going through mailboxes and other types of boxes, including ones that contained “poisonous bait used for rodents.”
Ross ran from police and later resisted being handcuffed, according to MPD. After placing Ross in a squad car, officers called an ambulance when they observed he appeared to be “out of breath and exhausted from running.”
He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and pronounced dead. TBI is investigating the incident.
Ross’ father said his son had mental health challenges and that he had done lawn work in the Midtown area in the past.
“You should see my son and just say he looks like he needs a lot of help,” said Courtney Allen. “He just needed help that day.”
TBI would not confirm what if any kind of video footage of the arrest might exist.
