Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Reverend Al Sharpton are representing the family of a white teenager who was gunned down by a police officer last month.
Hunter Brittain was shot to death in the early morning hours of June 23rd by a Lonoke County Sheriff Sgt. Michael Davis during a traffic stop outside of an auto repair shop along Arkansas Highway 89. When Brittain’s car would not shift into park, he exited his vehicle with a “large bright blue plastic bottle” of antifreeze to prevent the car from rolling back towards the officer’s car. That is when Davis opened fire, striking the young man three times. In early July, Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley announced that Davis had been fired for failing to turn on his body camera until after he’d already shot the 17-year-old.
“I gave my deputies body cameras. I directed them to use the body cameras properly,” Staley stated at the time.
However, Brittain’s family is pushing for Davis to face criminal charges. This is the first police brutality case involving a white victim that Crump and Sharpton will represent. The family has also retained attorney Devon Jacob to assist with the matter.
Crump believes that the image of an unarmed, white teenager being brutalized by police will allow the country to see that police brutality is not exclusive to African Americans but can affect all races. He feels that this may be the key to passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which has been delayed in the Senate since early March.
Brittain’s death has sparked protests outside the sheriff’s office and a petition calling for officers to activate body cameras during their entire shift. It has attracted thousands of signatures.
After his firing, Davis requested a grievance hearing to be reinstated on the force because he believed he turned on his camera during the fateful encounter.
