HUNTER BRITTAIN

The Washington Post reported that Rev. Al Sharpton will speak at the funeral of Hunter Brittain, the 17-year-old McRae teen fatally shot by a Lonoke deputy during a traffic stop last week.

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Sharpton’s participation was disclosed by Devon Jacob, a lawyer retained by the Brittain family and one of the lawyers for George Floyd’s family following his killing by Minneapolis police.

Sgt. Michael Davis, the eight-year sheriff’s deputy who shot Brittain, was fired Thursday for not engaging his body camera during the traffic stop. Brittain was unarmed. From the Post:

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“We’ll let the investigation play out, but I think what we already know is we have a 17-year-old child who was shot and killed by a police officer on a traffic stop merely because he was holding a bright blue jug of antifreeze,” Jacob said. “It’s very hard to explain how we ended up in this situation.”

Crump and Jacob said the Lonoke sheriff did the right thing by firing Davis for not activating his camera.

“Body cameras are, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the only way to see the unbiased facts surrounding a police and civilian encounter resulting in injury and/or death,” the attorneys said in a statement. “When officers turn their body cameras off, they turn off their intent to be transparent along with it.”

Sharpton is a civil rights activist. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said Brittain’s family had invited Sharpton to speak. The family and the family’s attorneys also are expected to speak at the funeral at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Beebe High School. There’s a visitation at Smith-Westbrook Funeral Home at 6 p.m. today in Beebe.