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Aug 27, 2023by: Mike Gurspan
Posted: Jun 21, 2023 / 06:39 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 22, 2023 / 10:25 AM CDT
OPP, Ala. (WDHN) — Eyewitnesses to the police shooting Tuesday morning in Opp dispute the official version of what happened.
Police say that the man shot was armed with a knife at a government housing project, but witnesses say the suspect was waving a belt and didn’t need to be shot.
Community activist, Aaron Boges, lives down the street at the Hardage Circle Housing Project. Describing police shooting Cornelius Ball as he raced out stark naked from the door of an apartment.
Boges says Ball had a history of mental issues, and that police aggravated the situation by breaking a bathroom window and shooting a chemical irritant into the apartment, and then shot him with bean bags to get him to leave.
“They know something was wrong with him, he had a mental problem. When they threw the tear gas and bean bags in there made that boy go crazy. That boy came out swinging a belt or something like that and they shot that boy seven times in the chest and head in front of the children,” says Boges.
Boges has put together a petition asking area residents to question what’s taking place with area law enforcement.
“This is how they’re doing us in this neighborhood. They claim they’re doing everything they can, but they’re just messing us up,” says Boges.
Opp Police Chief Kevin Chance says since it’s an officer-related shooting, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Bureau of Investigation is handling the matter.
The chief will not have any additional information on the case until the ALEA investigation is complete. But the chief insists that Ball was armed with a large knife, and not a belt when he exited the apartment.
Authorities say Cornelius Ball continues to recover from being shot at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery. His condition has not been made public at this time.
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