The activists are angry that deputies are absolved in Marquell McCullough's death.
By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Published May 28, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement will ask the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate the death of a 17-year-old killed this month by two Pinellas sheriff's deputies.
Chimurenga Waller, president of the movement's local branch, said the group's outrage over the shooting death of Marquell McCullough intensified this week when State Attorney Bernie McCabe concluded deputies David Antolini and Nelson DeLeon were justified in firing a combined 15 times at the pickup truck McCullough was driving.
The deputies said McCullough drove into DeLeon's cruiser and tried to clip Antolini before heading toward a taxi van. McCullough was struck nine times, including in the head.
"In the same breath the state attorney exonerated the two murderers, he admitted that McCullough was not even the person the cops were looking for," Waller said Thursday morning as McCullough's mother, Leola, sat nearby at a news conference. She declined to comment.
Although deputies thought they had seen McCullough dealing drugs earlier that night, McCabe's investigation revealed it probably wasn't him, but a man who looked similar, also driving a pickup. Deputies said they used the tinted windows on McCullough's truck, which they say were illegal, as the legal reason to pull him over.
DeLeon's cruiser camera was broken, while Antolini's had been having problems. Antolini had turned on the camera, but it recorded only a few seconds, officials said.
"Even as it has been revealed that . . . the cruisers' cameras mysteriously didn't work, the cops walk away free while another African mother grieves," Waller said. "It is clear to us that the police stop . . . was illegal and (was) racial profiling, and that law enforcement in Pinellas literally have a license to kill with impunity."
Sheriff's officials have defended the number of shots fired, saying deputies were trying to stop McCullough's truck from hurting them or anyone else.
An internal investigation will determine whether the deputies followed agency policies.
"I wouldn't even try to dignify any of their baseless allegations with a response," Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said Thursday. "They didn't conduct the investigation. They aren't aware factually of all the circumstances of the incident. They're just on a soap box grandstanding."
Audrey Williams, a civil rights commission spokeswoman, said such a complaint likely would be forwarded to an enforcement agency such as the Justice Department.
