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Decatur city leaders voiced their opinions on the officer-involved shooting death of Steve Perkins at the Monday night city council work session. 

More than a dozen people showed up to raise their concerns about the Perkins incident. 

Councilman Billy Jackson attended Monday night's meeting and says he was pleased to see the community is continuing to show up for justice. 

Jackson said what happened to Steve Perkins should not have happened and people need to be held accountable. 

“I think that it’s important that we look at the policies and procedures that were in place that allowed our officers to be there, that allowed our officers to not ring a doorbell, to not have their lights on, to not make Mr. Perkins aware that they were actually police officers,” Jackson said. 

Jackson says the Decatur Police Department failed and asks for Decatur Police Chief Todd Pinion’s resignation or termination.

He also says the officers involved should be terminated and arrested.

“It is my opinion that there needs to be changes made in our police department, and I think it starts not only with the officers who were involved with the incident itself, but with our chief and any supervisors who might’ve allowed this to go on,” Jackson said. 

Councilman Carlson McMasters also attended the council work session and says he is not ready to call for the chief's resignation. 

He says he needs all the facts and evidence before a decision like that is made.

When Pinion was asked about the councilman's comments he said, “I was appointed chief of police by this council in May 2022 and I intend to continue to lead and serve this community and our department”. 

We reached out to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and still no updates for the Perkins investigation are available at this time.