The family of a man killed last week by Raleigh police spoke out Tuesday morning, and their attorneys gave a list of specific demands for authorities and officials.
Those demands include firing the six officers who were involved in the Jan. 17 arrest and charging them with murder.
What You Need To Know
Darryl Williams, 32, died Jan. 17 after being Tased three times by Raleigh police
Attorneys representing the family laid out a list of demands for city officials and police at a news conference
They are calling for police involved in Williams' death to be fired immediately and charged with murder
Read the full 5-day report from the Raleigh Police Department here
“The taxpayers are tired of paying for our own murderers,” Attorney Dawn Blagrove said at news conference at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gardens, a place not far from where 32-year-old Darryl Williams was killed.
Williams was sitting on the driver’s side in a parked vehicle on the 800 block of Rock Quarry Road in a southeast Raleigh neighborhood with a passenger when Raleigh police approached him at about 2 a.m. on Jan. 17, according to a recently released five-day report by the Raleigh Police Department.
The officers searched Williams and found a folded-up dollar bill with what appeared to be cocaine inside, according to the report. Police said Williams tried to pull away from officers as they were arresting him. Six officers fought with Williams on the ground, and he was tased three times during the struggle.
"After the first drive stun, Mr. Williams can be heard on body worn camera saying, 'I have heart problems,'" according to the five-day report.
Surrounded by members of Williams’ family, Blagrove stated a list of demands. She called for the immediate termination of the six officers involved, and that they be charged with murder. She expressed a lack of faith in Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, and said there should be a special outside prosecutor assigned to the case.
She called for the immediate stop of “preventative policing,” suggesting that this a euphemism for “stop and frisk” and equated it with “Jim Crow policing.” Attorneys there also claim police respond to areas of the city differently and said predominantly Black communities are patrolled more heavily.
Blagrove further called for Raleigh police to have their Tasers removed until they have a better understanding of their own policies, according to Blagrove, who also called for more accountability and oversight.
And finally, she said that Raleigh City Council should enforce that police carry their own professional liability insurance, because she said citizens should not have to pay for mistakes made by law enforcement.
The six officers involved in Williams' death are currently on administrative leave as the SBI investigates, which is standard practice.
Spectrum News 1 has reached out to Raleigh police in reference to the family’s comments and demands, but did not hear back in time for this report.