Florida sheriff's office on trial again over fatal shooting
Florida sheriff's office on trial again over fatal shooting
(AP) — The parents of Seth Adams are sure Sgt. Michael Custer is lying about why he fatally shot their unarmed son in the parking lot of the family's nursey business nearly five years ago, even though the sheriff's deputy was cleared by investigators.
The family will get a chance to prove its allegations when a federal civil rights trial against Custer and the sheriff's office begins Monday with jury selection.
The Adams family and their attorneys say ballistics tests, contradictions in Custer's statements and observations by his Palm Beach County colleagues undermine his account of Adams as an immediate and persistent aggressor in the confrontation.
Both the sheriff's office and Wallace McCall, the family's lead attorney, declined to discuss the pending trial.
According to court records, Custer said Adams began yelling profanities at him "as loud as a person could" and demanded to know who he was without identifying himself as a resident.
Custer's neck also had no redness or bruising and gunpowder burns to Adams' forearm, ballistics evidence and a blood trail indicate Custer's shots were fired several feet from Adams' truck, the attorney said.