“We stand here, both present and past elected leaders of the community, to ask for calm, prayer and patience. Any loss of life, regardless of circumstance, is heartbreaking and we offer our sincere condolences to all of those involved,” said Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane in her official statement.
D.C. Twiddy, a senior officer in the Raleigh Police Department, pursued Akiel Denkins in an effort to take Denkins into custody for drug charges. Twiddy and Denkins struggled until Twiddy fired multiple shots at Denkins, eventually shooting him out of fear, according to a report to the city manager outlining initial findings of the case.
But community members doubt the accuracy of the initial report, said Irving Joyner, an attorney for the North Carolina NAACP, in a community meeting at Bible Way Temple. Witnesses have claimed the scene was blocked off and cleaned up before the public was able to view the shooting site, he said.
“We don’t get the information about what exactly the site looked like before it was sanitized,” Joyner said. “That’s a part of the concern that people have and a part of the anger that people have that they were blocked out while there was a cleaning up of the blood. There was a shuffling of leaves and other terrain around the shooting scene.”
