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The family of Steve Perkins continues their search for answers after the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency formally denied their request to see the body camera footage from the Sept. 29 shooting. 

It is much different than the way the city of Mobile handled this week's officer-involved shooting of a 16-year-old boy.

City officials allowed the family of Randall Adjessom see the body cam video of his shooting death Monday morning within 24 hours of the incident.

The Perkins family attorney, Cannon Lambert Sr., says the city of Decatur and ALEA are making a choice to not show the Perkins family the body camera footage. 

“There is no statute, there is no law, there is no protocol in place that requires that you forgo sharing information with a family who's lost a loved one,� Lambert said. 

Lambert says what happened in Mobile is the norm.

Lambert explained there's a trend across the state toward transparency, and wonders why the city of Decatur is refusing the opportunity to provide answers.

“I think everyone involved knows that it is a discretionary choice being made not to give the family the opportunity to witness and observe the video,� Lambert said. 

Steve's brother, Nicholas Perkins, says it's frustrating that his family was denied the request after weeks of waiting for an answer.

Nicholas Perkins says his heart is with the family in Mobile and like them, he wants answers from the city. 

“The fact that they got a chance to actually see the video cam footage or the body cam footage within 48 hours if I'm not mistaken, is just baffling to me,� Nicholas Perkins said. “Here we are seven weeks into it and haven’t got the smallest inkling of a yes.� 

“I wouldn’t want to put any other family through this tragedy, and this type of pain,� Nichols Perkins continued. “It calls for a lot of sleepless nights and that’s what we don’t want.�  

Nicholas Perkins wants to know why it's taken so long to see the body cam footage, and why their requests continue to be denied. 

Nicholas Perkins says his family wants to start healing, and they can't do that until they get some sense of closure. 

“I want to see what happened to my brother, I want to hear what they were saying,� Nicholas Perkins said. “The fact that it’s taken so long, it’s almost like they’re pre-denying that we can ever see it.�   

Nicholas Perkins says the community has seen the damage the Decatur Police Department has caused following the death of his brother. 

He says as the requests continue to be denied and the investigation continues, it only makes Decatur city leaders look more suspicious.

“There is a lot of tension between the citizens of this community and the police department and the hired officials,� Nicholas Perkins said.

“If they could just be more open to say, ‘Hey, this is what we're doing, and this is what we’re going to do,’ and then take some accountability for their actions,� Nicholas continued. “Maybe those relations could be better, but at this point it’s almost like that relationship is about to be severed.�

Nicholas Perkins says the Perkins family is now relying on their legal team to help them get answers and justice for the death of their loved one.

The Decatur City Attorney Herman Marks says he couldn't say much about what happened in Mobile, but he did say the investigative body is the one that determines the release, which in this case is ALEA. 

Decatur police said that because they brought in ALEA to help with the Perkins investigation, all rights to the body cam footage went over to them.  

ALEA says releasing the body camera footage to the Perkins family would affect the investigation as it is still ongoing.

ALEA has no updates on the Perkins investigation at this time.