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Show Us Video Of Teen's Gun

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   A community in turmoil searches for the truth in the police shooting death of a teenager. The Chattanooga Community Council says they need more proof Alonzo Kelley, Junior was pointing a gun at an officer when he was killed.

   Visitation for O'Kelley starts at 7 p.m at Franklin Strickland Funeral home on McCallie Avenue. And the Chattanooga Community Council, which is a Muslim based group chartered two years ago says it wants the raw truth.

    The group says its open to anyone of any faith. They say they got involved at the behest of O'Kelley's mother but she wasn't present at the news conference. The group's chairman says that was because she is preparing for his funeral and is emotionally and physically exhausted from her son's death.

     Chattanooga Community Council Chairman Mahmood Abdullah said, "They have not shown where a young man was pointing a pistol at the police, it's like they got rid of that evidence."

     On Tuesday, Chattanooga Housing Authority police chief Felix Vess says that is not true. "There's nothing to hide here, we want everybody to have the information we have," Chief Vess said.

   But without video proof, Chattanooga Community Council Chairman Mahmood Abdullah says it remains the police version versus East Lake Courts residents. Lt. Erik Reeves told authorities he ordered 15 year old Alonzo O'Kelley, Jr. to get down.

   Reeves says the 15 year old didn't and pointed a gun at him and that's when Reeves shot him in the back. Abdullah says his group has interviewed 15 people but would not provide any names. "We do have names and the community is very motivated about what's happening. And from everybody we talked to said he threw the gun down," Abdullah said.

   It's unclear if police knew about this group's exact number of witnesses, but listen to what Chief Vess said two days ago. "But with witnesses, you have 15 different witnesses that see the same thing 15 different ways."

    In the past week, we have spoken with several witnesses, including a man who lives in the back corner apartment of the courtyard where the shooting happened. He and others tell us that O'Kelley dropped just short of the sidewalk running parallel to 4th Avenue and only feet from the pole holding a surveillance camera. Now Abdullah says if police can show that he had a gun and where it fell, he will drop this and even apologize.

    When asked directly how far the gun was from O'Kelley's body, Chief Vess said, "There are some questions that I cannot answer because it is an ongoing investigation."

   The C-H-A provided surveillance video shows Lt Reeves sprinting just before shooting O'Kelley. That happens only seconds after police say the teenager exchanged gunfire with someone in a Durango driving down 4th Avenue.

And on Tuesday Chief Vess says a surveillance camera was pushed in on a problem porch.We double checked and where you see the officer running is a zoomed in shot. In all this controversy, police and this organization agree on one thing.

Drugs and guns are killing Chattanooga's youth. Chief Vess said, "It seems like they're lost out there. They've got guns, they're firing at each other, they are firing at police or attempting to fire at police."

    Meanwhile, the group says video proof of the shooting and where the teen's gun landed remain hidden information.

   Initially, Chattanooga Community Coucil said it had video of this shooting. When pressed on it, they could not produce any. Meanwhile, this group says it is in the process of seeking an investigation out of Washington D.C. Abdullah showed me a list of civil rights people and agencies he says they are in the process of contacting.


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