Photo Raises Questions About Possibe Police Coverup in the Shooting Death of Jermaine McBean...

Photo Raises Doubts About Police Shooting of Jermaine McBean - NBC News

After Florida police shot Jermaine McBean to death as he walked home with an unloaded air rifle, they said there was no reason to believe he did not hear their orders to drop the weapon and that he pointed it at them.

But a newly emerged photo that shows headphones in McBean's ears immediately after the 2013 shooting raises questions about the police version of events, including why the white earbuds were later found stuffed in the dead computer expert's pocket.

And another aspect of the police account is also being contradicted — by a man who called 911 in alarm when he saw McBean walking around with the air rifle but who also says McBean never pointed it at police or anyone else.

Michael Russell McCarthy, 58, told NBC News that McBean had the Winchester Model 1000 Air Rifle balanced on his shoulders behind his neck, with his hand over both ends, and was turning around to face police when one officer began shooting.

"He [McBean] couldn't have fired that gun from the position he was in. There was no possible way of firing it and at the same time hitting something," McCarthy said. "I kind of blame myself, because if I hadn't called it might not have happened."

Nearly two years later, the shooting is still the subject of an "active investigation" by prosecutors. McBean's family filed a wrongful death and misconduct lawsuit against the sheriff's office several weeks ago.

Their attorney, civil rights lawyer David Schoen, says the photo of McBean with the headphones — which he provided to NBC News — is evidence of a "coverup."

The witness who took it, a nurse who asked to remain anonymous, says she pointed out the earbuds to police at the scene, after they rebuffed her offer to provide first aid to the dying man.

A transcript shows that Deputy Peter Peraza, who fired the fatal shots, repeatedly told sheriff's investigators that he did not see anything in McBean's ears.

And the homicide detective who led an internal review told McBean's relatives in an email that officers on the scene "confirmed" he was not wearing a earpiece — after the family explained that he always had them on when he was out walking. The detective said the buds were found in his pocket, with his phone, at the hospital.

"I was highly upset," McBean's mother, Jennifer Young, said of the moment she learned about the photo. "I said, 'They lied to me. What else have they lied about?'"

The Broward Sheriff's office declined to comment on the lawsuit, the investigation and its decision to give Peraza a commendation three months after the shooting.

A spokesman for the Broward State's Attorney's Office, Ron Ishoy, said there is an "active investigaton" that will be presented to a grand jury and declined to answer questions about the photo or McCarthy's account.

The union lawyer who represented Peraza when he gave a statement to homicide Detective Efrain Torres did not respond to requests for comment.

In his videotaped statement to homicide investigators, Peraza said that he fired his service weapon after McBean "pulled the weapon up over his head and grabbed it and started to turn and point it at us."

"I felt like my life was threatened. I had that feeling like if I would not go home that day," said Peraza, who has been on the force for 14 years but spent a decade of that working in the detention center.

"I felt like I could've been killed. My sergeant could've been killed. He could've shot somebody in the pool area. So as soon as he did turn and point his weapon at us, that's when I fired my duty weapon."

Another officer at the scene, Sgt. Richard Lacerra, told investigators that McBean "spun around" and brought the rifle over his shoulders. "I thought at that point and time he was gonna swing and point the rifle at us," he said. "And the next thing I know there was gunshots."

Lacerra said that after McBean fell, the wounded man said to him, "It was just a BB gun."

McBean, who had two degrees from Pace University in New York, worked in information technology at a Fort Lauderdale ad agency, servicing the company's computers. He wore his earbuds to listen to music, and to handle service calls, family said. He did not have a criminal record, according to Schoen and to a search of public records.

An autopsy report showed he had the marijuana compound THC in his blood and urine. An expert at UCLA told NBC News the level was on the high side but the test does not reveal whether someone is intoxicated from recent usage or used in the past.

McBean was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010, shortly before he moved to Florida after a divorce, his family said. Following an episode at work six days before his death — a co-worker told police he was acting "manic" and "irrational" — he was taken to the hospital and had his medication adjusted.

When he was released, the co-worker told police, he was back to normal but decided to take the following week off.

On the afternoon of July 31, 2013, he walked to a local pawn shop where he purchased the Winchester. A police report says the shopkeeper recalled he wanted to buy a shotgun but decided on the air rifle. His family said he never showed an interest in guns and suspect he bought it on a whim.