The family of a man shot by Durham police in February says Kenneth Bailey Jr. was “was judged and executed on the street” and pleaded “for his life in between shots.”
In a statement released Friday, the family detailed accounts it gathered from people who were in the Club Boulevard neighborhood when Bailey, who went by the nickname Simba, was shot February 15. Their review paints a much different picture than the narrative put out by the Durham Police Department, in which the twenty-four-year-old pointed a gun at officers.
The family agrees that Bailey ran from the cops, who had an order for his arrest for violating pretrial release terms.
But, contra the DPD’s account, witnesses told the family that “officers never issued any orders to Kenny nor made any attempt to de-escalate the situation.” DPD says a stolen gun was found near Bailey’s body, but no one who spoke to Bailey’s family reported seeing him point a gun at officers.
“Kenny did not have to die. Yes, he failed to check in as he knew he should with the Criminal Justice Resource Center,” the family’s statement says. “But the City of Durham and Durham County’s justice system failed Kenny in a deeper and irreversible way. Kenny’s death demands that we do everything in our power to address the policy failures that created the situation in which Kenny was killed”
You can read the family’s full statement and the DPD’s five-day report on the shooting at indyweek.com.
This article appeared in print with the headline “+”EXECUTED ON THE STREET”.”
