By Police1 Staff
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Activists called for an independent investigation into the deaths of three female teenagers who drowned while fleeing Pinellas sheriff’s deputies, Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Bay Area Dream Defenders and the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement believe the deputies were negligent and “misreported” information in the released public documents into the March 31 deaths of 16-year-old Dominique Battle and 15-year-olds Ashaunti Butler and LaNiya Miller. The teens died after the stolen vehicle they were fleeing from police in plunged into a pond.
“We are convinced that the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department killed those children,” Uhuru chairman Omali Yeshitel said at a press conference. “They killed them. They murdered them.”
Yeshitela also pointed to a photo of the stolen sedan the teens drowned in and pointed out damage to the rear bumper. He told the news conference attendees that was evidence the deputies hit the teen’s car and caused it to veer into the water.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri defended his deputies and described the accusations by Yeshitela as “fantasy” to the news site. He has told reporters his deputies tried to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle but were not pursuing the vehicle when the car hit the water.
“My overall reaction is sadness that we’ve come to this, that they have to flat-out lie and cast this situation as something it’s not,"Gualtieri said. “They’re being irresponsible and harming the community by spreading this nonsense.”
Activists aren’t buying the sheriff’s statements.
"(Cops) kill the children and they’re the heroes and the people who are dead, they’re the villains. That’s what Gualtieri told the world,” Yeshitela said. “We don’t buy that.”
The department released documents into the investigation of the deaths, including dash cam footage. They maintain they did nothing wrong in the crash and that the teens stayed on the straight course when the road bended, ending up in the pond.