What We Know About the Florida Musician Who Was Killed by a Police Officer After His Car Broke Down

Corey Jones was headed home from Jupiter, Florida, late Saturday night when he ran into car trouble. The drummer had just finished a show at a surf-themed bar with his reggae band, Future Prezidents, and he called the group's bassist, Mat Huntsberger, to help him get back to Boynton Beach, about 30 minutes from Jupiter.

"He said he'd had the problem before with the oil—some kind of sensor went off and wouldn't let him start the car," Huntsberger told VICE. "I brought some oil, but nothing seemed to work."

As Huntsberger recalled, once the can of oil didn't do the trick, Jones called AT&T Roadside Assistance and told his friend to take off. Jones wanted to stay with his car because, he reasoned, if someone thought it abandoned it might get towed. It was around 2:30 in the morning when Huntsberger gave his friend a farewell high-five.

That was the last time he saw Jones alive.

About 45 minutes later, a plainclothes officer named Nouman Raja pulled up. Ironically, he later said he was checking out what appeared to be an abandoned vehicle. But what should have been a simple misunderstanding turned tragic: The on-duty Palm Beach Gardens cop alleges Jones pulled a gun as he approached, compelling him to shoot and kill the 31-year-old musician.

According to an unnamed Palm Beach Sheriff's Office source, Jones drew his gun as soon as Raja identified himself as a police officer. Raja fired "two to three" rounds, a chase ensued, and Raja fired the fatal shots when he saw what he believed to be a laser from Jones's gun, the source said.

Jones's family lawyers say he did not fire any shots.

Outrage is mounting online for Jones, who played in his church band, worked for the Delray Beach Housing Authority, and came from a well-known family in South Florida. The hashtags #Justice4Corey and #CoreyJones are picking up steam, and a protest outside of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department was planned for Thursday. But as the Washington Post points out, unlike other recent instances of police violence against people of color that have gained national attention, Jones was apparently armed with a gun, one cops and his family's attorney are both saying was purchased legally.

During a press conference on Tuesday, it was announced that the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office recovered a handgun at the scene, as well as paperwork indicating that it had been picked up by Jones three days before his death. Bob Jarvis, a law professor at South Florida's Nova Southeastern University told the Sun Sentinel that Jones might have thought the cop was "approaching to rob or mug him" because he wasn't dressed in uniform.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Governor Rick Scott pledged that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) would help the State Attorney's Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office dig into the case. State Representative Shevrin D. Jones is calling on FDLE to conduct an independent investigation as well. But Palm Beach Gardens cops wear no body cameras, and as the Wall Street Journal reported last December, FLDE is not exactly the most sophisticated state law enforcement agency, at least when it comes to tracking police shootings.

In the interim, though, the local police union has expressed anger at the department for not being more transparent and granting interviews. For instance, it still hasn't been officially disclosed whether words were exchanged between Jones and Raja—who has been placed on paid administrative leave—before bullets were fired.

"We don't want another Ferguson," Union President John Kazanjian told WPTV early this week. "They need to get out there and address the public. Chief, get out there and tell the public what is going on."

Raja does not appear to have a record of police brutality, though as the New York Times reported Wednesday, he was reprimanded a few times for minor infractions, like failing to promptly turn in drug evidence when working as a cop in Atlantis, Florida. Raja apparently declined to disclose those lapses when he applied for the gig in Palm Beach Gardens. For his part, Jones was arrested in Miami Beach in 2007 for having an illegal concealed carry gun that did not belong to him; the charges were later dropped, as the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Meanwhile, the Facebook page for the department has been deactivated due to racial slurs and profanity, according to a statement by the city, and the Jones family has hired Benjamin Crump, the civil-rights attorney who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

And if the president of the police union is critical about the lack of answers, Jones's friends and family members are even more pissed off.

"Anybody you talk to, besides me, they'll tell you the same thing," his friend Shaka Pace toldNew Times Broward-Palm Beach. "He just was a real gentle person. I've never even heard him raise his voice or argue. It was always good vibes. Something's just not adding up for me, you know?"

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