FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The family of a man shot and killed by a Fort Pierce police officer expressed their frustration over the lack of information provided about their son’s death earlier in May.
Police said it believes Bernard Smith shot three people — two died — on May 18 then shot at police before an officer shot and killed Smith, 28. The family said it’s frustrated they haven’t been shown body camera footage to corroborate police narratives.
“There’s been no body camera footage that has been shown to me or my family or no one else,” Albert Smith, Bernard’s dad, said on Tuesday. “Every other county shows video footage of the gun of the person shooting at, we haven’t gotten none of that. There’s been no gun that’s been shown to us. There’s no pictures of a gun that was shown to us. There was no gun around his body. He was murdered.”
Smith believes his child was murdered and police manufactured a narrative around his death.
Benjamin, according to family, was the definition of a “girl dad” and worked for the United States Postal Service for more than 20 years. Tonia Thomason, who identified herself as Benjamin’s daughter, told WPTV in May he provided for his family.
“Even though he was deaf, he just made sure that we [weren’t] limited on anything,” Thomason said. “He provided for us. He took care of us. My mom was a majority stay-at-home wife. He just did everything in our power to make us happy.
