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Family calls for officer who killed DeKalb County man to be fired
The family said was Matthew Zadok Williams having a mental health crisis when he was killed and they wish the police would have gotten him help.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - Family members of a man shot and killed by police are calling for the DeKalb County sergeant who reportedly pulled the trigger to be fired.
At a protest Saturday night, the family of 35-year-old Matthew Zadok Williams and activists say the sergeant who killed him during an encounter should no longer be on the force.
Protestors marched into Wesley Chapel Road to demand the termination of Sgt. Devon Perry.
"Our family is demanding that Sergeant Devon Perry be fired immediately. Immediately for the murder of my brother," William's sister Hannah Williams said.
Police shot and killed Williams in April after they got a call about a man with a large knife at an apartment complex on Terrace Trail in Decatur.
The body cam video shows Williams come at an officer with a knife in his hand, then police shot at him. The footage shows that he then went back into the house and officers fired again on him.
In the body camera footage, Perry is heard pleading with Williams to surrender.
"Please sir. I’m begging you. I’m a Black man, you’re a Black man. You don’t have to die today. I don’t want you to die today," Perry says.
SEE MORE: 'My brother should be alive': Man killed by police, family says cops could have saved him
The family said was he having a mental health crisis — and they wish the police would have gotten him help.
"We have had the displeasure of looking at over 10 hours of body camera footage and nothing in that footage shows that Sergeant Perry should have shot into my brother’s home," Hannah Williams said.
Williams' mother Chris Ann Lewis says Perry's firing would be a step toward justice for her son.
"We are demanding that we get justice," Lewis said. "Why is Sgt. Devon Perry still working, drinking coffee, and acting like he hasn’t murdered my son? Why? … I’m asking you, Sgt. Perry, Why? Why? Why? Why did a Black man have to die? Why?"
DeKalb County police did not immediately get back to FOX 5 with a response to the demand.
There is no word yet on possible disciplinary actions that Perry could face.
The GBI is still investigating the shooting.
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