Lawyer for family of Steve Perkins speaks on case

Several hundred people gathered Thursday evening at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church to listen to Cannon Lambert, one of the lawyers representing the family of Steve Perkins.

While he answered each and every question from the community, there was a common theme: the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Decatur city leaders have stopped communicating with them.

The Morgan County NAACP chapter coordinated this community-wide discussion in an effort to keep the fight for justice going.

President of the Morgan County NAACP, Rodney Gordon, said, “We’re frustrated right now, you know, but we don’t give up. We’re mad, we’re human beings. Especially when you have seen this happen, you know if it wasn’t for the door cam we wouldn’t even be having this interview.”

Lambert says after ALEA denied the family's request to view the body camera footage, the agency went quiet.

Lambert said, “When you're told you're going to get body cam footage and then you don’t, it’s disturbing. It does make you scratch your head, it makes you wonder whether or not there's information there that they don’t want you to know.”

That denial is accompanied by one reason - it could interfere with ALEA’s ongoing investigation.

Lambert added, “There should be some communication and transparency. We just had a situation a month ago where we were in Arkansas on a different matter, where we asked to see body camera and that request was met. So we know that people do it, we know that law enforcement has the capacity to do it.”

Lambert also addressed silence from the police chief, the mayor and other Decatur city leaders, saying, “We’ve not had a lot of cooperation that’s been given to us from law enforcement to this point, which has truly been frustrating and disappointing. But ultimately speaking if that doesn’t happen and we’re left to do what we’re left to do, which is file suit. The hope was and the hope still remains that we would see some cooperation from law enforcement.”

The Decatur Police Department’s internal review into the officer-involved shooting death of Steve Perkins is complete.

Chief Todd Pinion said in a news release, “I will soon hold a predetermination hearing to review the internal investigation report and its findings.”

Pinion said he will share those results likely “within the coming week.”