Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gun test video sheds light on fatal shooting by police
After shooting and killing stranded motorist Corey Jones along a highway exit ramp, thenpolice officer Nouman Raja said he fired in self-defense after seeing a red laser from Jones’ handgun.
After investigators soon learned Jones’ gun didn’t have a laser, they tried to solve the mystery of Raja’s claim concerning the tragic encounter on Oct. 18, 2015.
So they went back to the scene with Jones’ licensed .380-caliber handgun, held it up in the night air and observed the reflection of a nearby red traffic signal on the side of the weapon.
A video of this gun test was shown for the first time Friday to the Palm Beach County jury by prosecutors in Raja’s trial on manslaughter and attempted murder charges. And there is a big dispute over its significance in the case.
Raja’s lawyers say the video is a critical piece of evidence that corroborates the former officer’s account of what happened near the intersection of PGA Boulevard and the southbound Interstate 95 off-ramp in Palm Beach Gardens.
“He said he saw a red flickering light around the barrel of the handgun that Mr. Jones pointed at him,” attorney Scott Richardson told the jury this week. “The light reflectivity test … perfectly replicated what he saw.”
But prosecutors, who didn’t provide the video to the defense until a year ago, downplayed the importance of the simulation by investigators 17 days after the 3:15 a.m. shooting.
“Well it’s a shiny silver gun … of course light’s going to reflect off it,” said Assistant State Brian Fernandes. “That means nothing as to where that gun was pointed.”
The prosecutors argue it was reasonable for Jones — sitting in his broken-down SUV — to grab his gun because Raja never identified himself as a cop, wore street
clothes, and drove a white van without any police insignia.
Raja’s lawyers said Raja did announce he was a police officer, even though that can’t be heard on a recording of Jones’ call for roadside assistance.
“I said, ‘Hey man, police, can I help you?’ ” Raja said. “And the second I said police, he jumped back and I clearly remember him drawing ... a gun at me. I saw that silver muzzle, and ... I saw that red light, with that Laser Max flashing at me.”
Raja’s lawyers leaned on the gun-test video in their unsuccessful effort last year to have the court grant Raja immunity from the charges under the state’s “stand your ground” selfdefense law.
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer, who presided over the case until transferring to the family court division last summer, ruled that the evidence does not back up Raja although the defense was free to try to convince jurors.
“The Court finds the ‘light reflectivity test’ is not conclusive proof Jones had his gun drawn as Defendant approached,” she wrote. “Defendant’s unreliable testimony is all that supports that proposition.”
The jury that has been reviewing evidence since Tuesday was not told about the “stand your ground” hearing, although one witness once mentioned it in passing by mistake.
Prosecutors introduced the video Friday during the testimony of crime-scene investigator Keith Thomas. He took photos and a video of the gun test, which was performed by investigator Thomas Wills with the State Attorney’s Office.
“We were trying to replicate the appearance of a flickering laser pointer on the weapon,” Thomas explained during questioning by Fernandes. “It did not look like a laser to me at all.”
But after an objection from the defense, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx did not permit Thomas to speculate on why Jones may have been holding the gun.
In other witness testimony Friday, the jurors learned that additional testing showed that Jones never fired his gun and the only weapon used that night was Raja’s .40-caliber Glock pistol.
Jones was hit by three of the six shots, including a fatal wound to his chest, prosecutors said.
The trial is running ahead of schedule and the prosecution will present its final witnesses on Monday, including the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy of Jones, a 31-year-old musician and housing inspector.
Then, the defense can put on its case, which will feature an expert who disagrees with the autopsy findings.