FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The family of a man shot and killed by a BSO deputy is speaking out, Thursday, in hopes of bringing the case in front of a jury.
The deputy, 37-year-old Peter Peraza, shot and killed 33-year-old Jermaine McBean, who was walking outside, holding an air rifle, back in July of 2013.
McBean’s family said the headphones Jermaine was wearing may have obstructed his hearing. In a press conference, the family was seen holding the headphones.
McBean’s headphones were also seen in a photo taken by a witness moments after the shooting.
Deputy Peraza told investigators McBean failed to drop the rifle after being told numerous times. According to a taped interview with officials, Detective Torres can be heard asking Peraza, “OK, so, when you approached him, did you see anything that would have obstructed his ability to hear?”
Peraza answered, “No.”
Peraza was facing 30 years in prison if convicted of first-degree felony manslaughter, but a Broward judge issued a 36-page ruling, Wednesday, siding with the defense and dismissed the case.
McBean’s family said this isn’t the ruling they had hoped for but are planning on appealing the decision. “I was extremely depressed,” said McBean’s mother Jennifer Young. “We have to take this further because that’s not right. That’s wrong.”
Young feels that justice has not yet been served. “The grand jury found him guilty and what did he do? Found a way out of it,” said Young.
In the judge’s ruling, he said Peraza was justified in defending himself and wrote that “McBean was not acting rationally.”
At a Black Lives Matter meeting in the African American Research Library in Fort Lauderdale, Wednesday evening, McBean’s brother called the judge’s argument a smoke screen.
“What did that matter in the last two minutes of his life when they walked up and shot him?” McBean’s brother said. “Did they know that beforehand? No. Peter Peraza deserved a trial by jurors just like any other member of the community.”
McBean’s mother is now asking for only one thing: a trial. “We’re waiting,” she said. “We’re gonna try to find a way to get him to go to trial.”
McBean’s family currently has several civil lawsuits against multiple officers who were involved in the shooting.
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