The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.- A woman says Birmingham police shot her 38-year-old grandson to death while handcuffing him on the dining room floor after she had spent hours trying to talk him out of killing himself.
Rickey Gross, 38, was shot as many as a dozen times — with a majority of the wounds in his back — Saturday night when police went to question him about the shooting of his girlfriend earlier that day, The Birmingham News reported Monday.
Family members said he was unarmed when he was shot although he did have a gun and a knife earlier in the day.
His grandmother, Equilla Gross, said up to four officers shot him to death. A department press release said the shooting erupted after a physical altercation between officers and Gross. Authorities said Sgt. Lee Kerzic, who was among officers trying to handcuff Gross, was shot at least once by friendly fire. He was treated at a hospital and released.
Gross, described as being troubled over the loss of his job, car and apartment, was accused of critically wounding his girlfriend outside his uncle’s house. He then turned the gun on himself, but police and family members said the gun jammed when he pulled the trigger.
Gross fled to a cousin’s Inglenook home, and Equilla Gross was called to the scene. She said she had her arm around him when police arrived about 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
“They rushed in and grabbed him out of my arm,” she told the News. In the next few chaotic seconds, officers tried to handcuff his left wrist and gunfire erupted, she said.
“I would rather for him to have killed himself than for the police to come in there and shoot him like they did,” she said.