POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida family is demanding justice two months after their loved one was fatally gunned down in his backyard during an encounter with police.
Fifty-six-year-old Greg Frazier was shot and killed by Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies behind his Pompano Beach home, Sept. 9. His family said he was sitting in a chair eating chicken wings at the time of the confrontation.
Monday afternoon, three potted plants stood next to the empty chair, a small memorial for a man who, his family said, was taken too soon.
His son, Xavier Frazier, is still grappling with the loss and with the way deputies handled the situation. “Why did my dad have to die? Why couldn’t they have talked him down?” he said.
Greg’s family said there had been an argument, but he had calmed down. “I’m asking the state of Florida, Broward County, Pompano Beach, to do the right thing concerning my dad,” said the younger Frazier.
Deputies responded to the home in the area of Northwest 14th Street and Third Avenue, just before 10 p.m.
Frazier’s sister, Deborah Frazier, had made the call to 911:
Dispatcher: “911, what’s your emergency?”
Deborah Frazier: “It’s an emergency. My [inaudible], he hit my, my — he’s trying to hurt my daughter and my son. Pompano Beach Police, he’s breaking up stuff in my house, right now.”
Dispatcher: “And who is he?”
Deborah Frazier: “Hurry up. Hurry up, please.”
It’s a call Deborah now wishes she had never made. “I blame myself for his death,” she said. “I know I didn’t pull the trigger, but still, I feel as though, if I had not called, he would still be living today.”
Greg’s family said he didn’t need to be shot, that they could have spoken with him instead. “Can we get some justice? Can we find out that you plan on charging those who, on my dad’s death certificate says ‘homicide,’ who committed that homicide?” said Xavier.
The fatal shooting led to protests calling for justice in the case. Now, Greg’s family wants the deputies who fired those shots to be held responsible.
“If the laws are in place for when this can happen, and it’s OK, then those laws need to change,” said Xavier. “Let’s start there.”
The deputies involved in the shooting remain on administrative leave. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.
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