A North Texas mother is demanding transparency and wants to view the officers' body-worn cameras after her son was one of two men shot and killed by law enforcement at a Fourth of July block party.
On Thursday friends and family identified one of the men as 30-year-old Bronshay Minter whose nickname was Bam. He is known as a talented motorcycle stunt rider who was a tattoo artist, and father, according to family.
His mother, aunt, 13-year-old son, and family along with friends brought flowers, blue balloons, a blue cross with a toy motorcycle and held a prayer vigil near the location where he collapsed after being shot.
"I want to see what happened, I want to know what happened to my son and I want justice for my son. My son was murdered I want justice for my son," said a tearful Shantelle Thoene, Minter's mother.
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She said she hasn't seen her son's body yet, nor has she been able to get in touch with police.
“I want answers, I want to know what happened. I don’t want to hear rumors, I don’t want to hear what people had to say, I want to see a camera, I want to see a video, I want to see what happened," said Thone.
Minter's family and friends said the accounts of what took place that night are different than the information Fort Worth Police have put out so far.
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“He was trying to get away, he was trying to remove himself from the situation when he was shot and killed," said his aunt, Major Minter.
The shootings happened near the intersection of NW 32nd St. and Ross Ave. where the neighborhood had its annual Fourth of July block party.
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said in an interview Wednesday morning that around 12:30 a.m., an officer and an arson investigator, who is a sworn peace officer with a service weapon, were paired up to investigate illegal firework activity. They were on their way to a call when they saw two armed men in an altercation and fired their weapons.
"This is a very dynamic scene that just came out of nowhere, the officers weren't even trying to respond to this scene when they came by," Noakes said on Wednesday morning during a news conference at the scene.
Police said they're continuing to investigate and iron out the details, but the family is pressing against the information released so far.
The family said Minter was not the type of person to encourage a fight, but would rather try to break it up. They said while he owned a firearm, it was registered and that he would not threaten an officer with a gun.
"If there was an altercation happening, I know my son was there trying to de-escalate the altercation, I know it," said Thoene.
“If the police told him to freeze and put his hands up, Bronshay would be the first one with his hands up," said his aunt Major, who dispelled the thought of him pulling out a gun and shooting. "Especially [because] he has a son, he has family, there's no way he would chance his life on that."
It's unclear what exactly took place before police arrived, but multiple people who were there said there was some type of argument involving other people that were starting to fizzle out.
A man who was at the annual block party said the event is usually smooth and that they get a permit from the city, which he showed a copy of from an organizer, to operate the fireworks.
He said they didn't know anything was truly wrong until they heard gunfire.
"We were all out here having a nice time for Fourth of July. Towards the end of the night, there was a lot of shooting, from the police actually. The guys that got shot they were not shooting at each other, they were friends they were out here popping fireworks," said Anthony Wormley.
He said there were multiple people, including children, gathered in the area when the officer-involved shooting happened.
“They [law enforcement] had been in the neighborhood showing their presence for the Fourth of July, but they had parked their car there," said Wormley as he pointed to the street in front of the house where the party was. "We had seen the car parked there. They didn’t holler, ‘police, freeze’ or anything, they just started shooting. So when they started shooting you know, everybody started trying to get away from bullets and running," described Wormley who also ran.
"It’s dangerous, bullets, so yeah, there were kids out here. I feared for the kids' lives and my life also," he continued.
Wormley echoed what others said, that Minter was trying to get away from the shooting, but was hit by bullets and passed out on the side of the house.
"Me and one of my friends were trying to give chest compressions to him, but he ended up passing later at the hospital," said Wormely who provided a video which he said showed Minter being taken away on a stretcher.
The other man shot and killed has not been identified yet and police said two other people, a man and woman were also injured in the shooting.
"I don’t know why the police came out shooting, but just show the body camera footage," said Wormley.
Minter's family said what makes this tragedy even worse is that 15 years ago this month, his father was shot and murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma when Minter was a teenager.
Thoene said now losing her son has left her heartbroken.
"We’re hurting we’re going to be changed forever, they took my heart, and they can't give it back, took a life you can't give back," cried Minter's mother. "Everyone of these people loved him, he’s loved, but they took my son away from me, and I want answers, I want answers.”
Thursday afternoon Fort Worth Council Member Chris Nettles officer put out a statement that he was looking into what happened and "Councilman Nettles has received your calls and recognizes your concerns and will ensure that the City operates in full transparency.”
He said he would offer updates to the public as soon as he could and offered his prayers to the families of the two people who lost their lives and the other bystanders injured.
