From [HERE] The Titusville Police Department (TPD) has released bodycam footage showing a foot pursuit that ended with the officer-involved shooting of James Lowery (video below).

Now-former Titusville Police Officer Joshua Payne, 29, is facing a manslaughter charge in connection with Lowery’s death.

The incident occurred as Officer Payne was responding to a report of a woman being violently assaulted on South Deleon Avenue on Dec. 26, 2021, WESHreported.

Officer Payne arrived at the scene and spotted a man who matched the suspect’s description fleeing the area on foot, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FLDE) said in a press release on June 1.

The man was later identified as 40-year-old Lowery, Spectrum News 13reported.

Officer Payne chased after him, firing his Taser multiple times to no avail, according to police.

Bodycam footage showed Officer Payne as he ordered Lowery to stop running and to stop reaching in his pockets. However, on video it doesn’t look like he is doing that.

“Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!” the officer ordered, just before Lowery appeared to try to climb over a fence, the video showed. Here, apparently he was referring to an imaginary gun - that he never saw.

Investigators later claimed the suspect tossed bags of illegal drugs away as he was fleeing.

Officer Payne told the seemingly-cornered suspect to “get down” and fired his Taser at him again, but Lowery was unaffected by the jolt.

Lowery kept attempting to flee and then turned away from the officer and hoisted himself over the fence, ignoring Officer Payne’s repeated commands to stop, the video showed.

The FLDE said Officer Payne, who was holding both his Taser and his duty weapon, then fired both weapons simultaneously, striking the suspect in the back of his head, Spectrum News 13 reported.

Lowery died at the scene.

Police claim Lowery threw an object and say that it turned out to be a “small bag of drugs,” WFTV reported. But people who commit murders, also might lie.

The FDLE handled the investigation into the fatal officer-involved shooting and submitted its findings to prosecutors on May 6.

Officer Payne was charged with manslaughter in connection with Lowery’s death.He turned himself in at the Brevard County Jail on June 1 and was later released on $15,000 bond.

Officer Payne was placed on unpaid leave from the TPD pending the outcome of an internal investigation, but he resigned from the force after he was criminally charged, WESH reported.

The TPD completed its internal investigation and released the bodycam footage on June 23.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Lowery’s mother, Linda Johnson, said that Lowery had nothing to do with the domestic violence incident that led Officer Payne to respond to the area in the first place, WESH reported.

Investigators have confirmed that Lowery was not involved in the original call for service, WFTV reported.

“James Lowery wasn’t even the person 911 was called on,” Crump told reporters. “They shot the wrong black man.”

“A shot to the back of the head – nothing else needs to be said. That is unjustified,” Crump said. “You can’t justify shooting a man in the back of the head as he is running away from you.”

Titusville Police Chief John Lau said Officer Payne’s use of deadly force was not justified and that investigators believe the firearm discharge was accidental, WESH reported.

Chief Lau further noted that the officer violated multiple policies during the incident, to include having his firearm and his Taser out of their holsters at the same time.

“This was not a justified shooting. It was an accidental shooting with tragic results,” the chief said.

Chief Lau said that Lowery’s “decision to run away from Officer Payne and physically resist his lawful orders to stop also contributed to this incident,” Florida Today reported. Spoken like a true authoritarian, spouting ignorance to justify killing a Black man.

The Supreme Court has explained the use of deadly force to prevent escape is unconstitutional, at least in regard to white citizens that is. The Court has explained,

The use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances, is constitutionally unreasonable. It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect. 

A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead… Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given. 

Tennessee v. Garner - 471 U.S. 1 at page 11 (1985).