State attorney gives update on Jones shooting
100 potential witnesses have been interviewed.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office said Thursday it continues to investigate last fall’s fatal shooting of Corey Jones by a Palm Beach Gardens police officer, but gave no timeline as to when it expects the investigation to be completed.
Jones, of Boynton Beach, was shot and killed Oct. 18 by officer Nouman Raja, who has since been fired, while waiting for roadside assistance after his car broke down on the southbound Interstate 95 off-ramp at PGA Boulevard.
Raja, who was in plain clothes when he approached Jones at 3:15 a.m., shot the 31-year-old six times, according to police.
The fatal shooting was one of many to reach national scale in the wake of several shootings of unarmed black men across the country. According to police, Jones was armed when Raja confronted
Read past stories in The Post’s Corey Jones shooting at Read The Post-WPTV NewsChannel 5 joint investigation on police shootings in Palm Beach County at him, but never fired his weapon.
In the 116 days since the shooting, the State Attorney’s Office said it has interviewed more than 100 potential witnesses spanning 30 states and three countries and continue to go through and test DNA, fingerprints, crime-scene analysis and ballistics.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are working with the state attorney.
The office will decide whether to charge Raja with the fatal shooting. Prosecutors have not charged an officer in an on-duty shooting since at least 2000, according to The Palm Beach PostWPTV NewsChannel 5 investigation, Line of Fire.
The State Attorney’s Office said it provided the update to the Jones family as well, but did not say when. The office would not comment further about the release or its timing.
State Attorney Dave Aronberg is up for reelection this year. Aronberg, who was elected to a fouryear term in 2012, is the only candidate who has filed to run for the position, according to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections.
In the wake of the shooting, Palm Beach Gardens officials unanimously approved $262,296 to buy body cameras for the police department, and Jones’ family went to Tallahassee to advocate both for police body cameras across the state and for the “Corey Jones Act,” which would bar certain grants from going to law-enforcement agencies that allow officers to be in plain clothes during traffic stops.