Jabari Latrell Peoples

Jabari Latrell Peoples, 18, a community college student, was shot in the back and killed by a Homewood, Alabama police officer on June 23, 2025, while sitting in a parked car with his girlfriend at a soccer complex. Police said the officer approached to arrest Peoples for suspected marijuana possession, a struggle followed, and the officer fired after Peoples broke free and grabbed a handgun from the car door; Peoples's family disputed that account entirely, saying he was unarmed and complied with the officer before being taken to the ground and shot within seconds. His family was not notified of his death by law enforcement at all, learning instead from the county coroner's office more than twelve hours later. Under Alabama law, the agency investigating the shooting was barred from releasing the body camera footage to the public or even to Peoples's parents; only his siblings were eventually shown it. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr announced in August 2025 that no charges would be filed and the case would not be presented to a grand jury. No one has ever been charged in Peoples's death.

Homewood, AL · Jefferson County

• 2025: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The attempted arrest, the struggle, and the shooting, per Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr's August 2025 public announcement and reporting from the Associated Press and Birmingham-area outlets.
• A uniformed Homewood police officer approached Peoples's parked car at the Homewood Soccer Complex around 9:30 p.m. and attempted to detain him after reportedly noticing marijuana and a gun in the car door; police said a struggle ensued in which the officer was knocked to the ground.
• District Attorney Carr said body camera footage and other evidence showed Peoples grabbed the gun from the car door with his right hand after breaking away from the officer, who then fired a single shot that struck Peoples in the back.
• Peoples's family released a public statement disputing the official account entirely, stating he was not armed, that he complied with the officer, and that he was taken to the ground and shot within seconds; they also said no life-saving measures were performed on him at the scene, while police said backup officers began medical aid within 96 seconds of arriving.
• Peoples's family was never directly notified of his death by police or medical personnel; they learned of it when the Jefferson County Coroner's Office contacted them roughly twelve hours after he was pronounced dead.
• Under a 2023 Alabama law governing release of police recordings, only the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), which took over the investigation, was authorized to release the body camera footage; ALEA denied repeated requests from both Peoples's family and the City of Homewood to release it.
• Peoples's mother, represented by attorney Leroy Maxwell Jr., filed a court petition to compel the City of Homewood to release the footage and the identities of officers present; civil rights attorney Ben Crump later joined the family's legal team.
• District Attorney Carr arranged for Peoples's siblings, though not his parents, to view the footage in August 2025 before announcing no charges would be filed and that the case would not be presented to a grand jury at all; his sister said afterward it was not clear from the video that Peoples had a gun, and Crump said Peoples never pointed anything at the officer.
• Regular protests were held in Homewood in the weeks following the shooting, with demonstrators calling for transparency and the video's full public release.

• Whether Peoples in fact grabbed a handgun from the car door before being shot, as the district attorney's account states, or was unarmed and compliant, as his family has maintained, was never tested at any criminal trial or even presented to a grand jury, and remains disputed even by family members who have since viewed the footage.
• Whether officers rendered aid to Peoples within 96 seconds, as police stated, or took no life-saving action, as the family's public statement said, has not been independently reconciled in available public reporting.
• The full body camera footage remains legally unreleased to the public as of the sources reviewed for this summary, meaning the only public accounts of its contents come from the district attorney's summary and the differing impressions of family members who were shown it.

• Associated Press (via Yahoo News) — “Family seeks body camera footage from fatal police shooting of Jabari Peoples in Homewood”
• WVTM13 — “The latest in the death of Jabari Peoples: Homewood mayor releases statement after family sees video”
• Birmingham Times — “DA: Jabari Peoples Reached for Gun Prior to Being Shot by Homewood Police Officer”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs