FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Dozens of protesters filled the Federal Freeway in Boynton Beach Saturday afternoon to claim responsibility for the death of a 13-year-old who died after escaping police on his off-road motorcycle.
Stanley Davis III was at a Chevron gas station, filling the tank of the off-road motorcycle he had received the previous Christmas day.
Followed by the police, Davis quickly lost control and crashed onto the sidewalk in the median. He died on the scene.
“The officer was completely wrong,” said protester Todd Johnson. “I need him to go to jail.”
Protesters ran the engines of motorcycles and off-road motorcycles for 45 minutes in the Chevron and the nearby ACE equipment parking lot, with many people holding up signs along the roadway. There was no police presence on this stretch of motorway until the demonstration was relocated.
“People are angry right now,” said Johnson. “The officer did that, he could have done it completely differently.”
Protesters want the video. Although the police vehicle involved in the incident did not have a dash cam, a police spokeswoman said the video was passed to the Florida Highway Patrol’s body camera.
“We want transparency,” said protester Olen Whitely. “We are here for justice.
Police refused to identify the officer or how long he had been with the agency, citing de Marsy’s law, a state law protecting victims’ rights. They will not provide any information about the accident either, except that after the driver was “observed negligently driving”, “attempted a traffic control and the off-road motorcycle crashed in the 800 block of the north federal motorway”. “.
All-terrain vehicles are prohibited from use on public roads under Florida law.
Family and friends accuse the police of having carried out a PIT maneuver, in which the police can bring a fleeing car out of control and bring it to a standstill by impact. But Police Chief Michael Gregory said at a press conference last weekend that he had neither seen nor heard that the officer hit Stanley or his bike.
The police officers do not want to say under what circumstances the off-road motorcycle came to a standstill. When asked whether there had been a PIT maneuver, police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater referred questions to the Florida Highway Patrol, which is leading the investigation, on Saturday. A Florida Highway Patrol spokesman was initially unavailable for comment.
The 13-year-old’s family informed the Sun Sentinel during the protest that the child would be buried next Saturday. The nationally renowned civil rights activist Benjamin Crump confirmed by email on Saturday that he had taken matters into his own hands.
The child’s father, Stanley Davis Jr., said the family had questions. “When I run out of breath, I stop,” he said.
Stanley’s mother Shannon Thompson said her heart was torn. She said he was her only child. She said that despite previous reports identifying her child as Stanley Davis, Jr., he was the Stanley Davis III.
“He’s all I have,” she said.
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