Family demands justice for Adrein
Investigation of teen’s May 5 Sanford killing continues
As Sanford police Chief Cecil Smith tried to comfort her, Andrea Smith Green stared at the spot on the street where her son was found with a single gunshot wound in his back.
Moments earlier, family and friends had been chanting “no justice, no peace” outside the Garrison Drive home where law enforcement say 17-year-old Adrein Aubrey Green was burglarizing a vehicle May 5 when he was shot dead by its owner.
The shooter, whose name hasn’t been released, wasn’t arrested after officials initially determined his actions were justified under Florida law. But Smith stressed the investigation is not over.
“We’re still in the process,” a kneeling Smith told the grieving mother Tuesday night.
Smith Green vows not to let anyone tarnish the name of her son.
“Lives matter,” Smith Green said. “My black kid mattered.”
The teenager’s family is demanding answers and are being represented by Orlando attorney Mark O’Mara, best known for helping George Zimmerman win his acquittal in the 2012 killing of
Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
The same chant Adrein’s supporters led Tuesday became a rallying cry eight years ago for those outraged by Trayvon’s death, a killing with clear parallels to this one: They were the same age. Their killers were not initially arrested because of Florida’s laws governing the use of deadly force.
As Trayvon’s family did then, Adrein’s family said the official explanation of the
killing doesn’t make sense and the shooter’s account doesn’t square with the young man they knew.
“I know who I raised — I know who my son was,” Smith Green said through tears. “Adrein was a sweet child. … I’m still in shock that my baby is gone.”
‘He wanted to feel normal’
Adrein, who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when he was 9, was a “gentle giant” who played varsity football for Orange City’s University High School and dreamed of being in the NFL, but struggled with his family’s homelessness and bullying.
Adrein died two months shy of what he wanted most — to turn 18, so he could get a better job and provide financially for his mother, family said.
“He always said that,” Smith Green said. “I always told him that wasn’t his place — that was my place to take care of us.”
Always tall as a child, Adrein had grown to be 6 foot 7 and was a quiet person who was rarely the first to talk, his cousin Jamara Daugherty said. He was also “a hugger” who sang in the choir at his church, according to his aunt Lillian Wright.
Since November 2018,
Adrein and his mother had lived in a Honda Element because they weren’t able to afford a home whose landlord typically demanded three times the rent as a security deposit, Smith Green said. She tried to make the SUV’s hard seats comfortable for sleeping with foam, cushions and extra blankets, but Adrein didn’t want that.
“He’d rather suffer those hard seats than add more stuff to the truck to look like we were homeless,” she said. “… It was hard. He wanted to feel normal.”
He was already picked on by classmates for his size and skin color — so much so that sometimes he wore ear plugs to school as a defense mechanism, his mother said.
“People were mean to Adrein,” she said.
Adrein got along well with adults but had a hard time connecting with his peers, Smith Green said. When he worked at Wendy’s, he would regularly buy food for other children with his earnings, she said.
“I would tell him, ‘Adrein, that’s not how things work,’” his mother said. “But that’s what he did.”
Smith Green said she met with Sanford police to let them know about her son’s disability, in case they ever encountered him. Adrein had started to hang out with a “wrong crowd,” said his sister, Jacarra Washington.
“He was trying to fit in with society, trying to fit with everybody that accepted him,” Washington said.
The coronavirus pandemic took its toll on Adrein, who was confined to the SUV most of the day while his mother worked at Meals on Wheels, Smith Green said.
“It got to be a challenge for him,” she said. “All he wanted was a bedroom and a bathroom.”
Hours before Adrein was killed, Smith Green said she had parked the SUV outside her daughter’s driveway, which was close to Adrein’s job at Camp House Bar & Grill. Her son told her over the phone that he was on his way to the vehicle after making himself a sandwich at work.
Exhausted, Smith Green said she fell asleep on her daughter’s floor after a shower. When she woke up and he wasn’t in the SUV, she assumed he had gone back to work.
‘My black kid mattered’
Sanford police said the homeowner called 911 about 1 a.m. after his wife woke him up because she heard loud noises outside their house. After grabbing his 9mm handgun, the man opened his front door and said he saw someone about 20 feet away, between the two vehicles in his driveway.
The homeowner said he yelled at the person and shot twice to “scare him off,” according to a recording of the call. He initially described the alleged burglary suspect as a shirtless white man.
“He faced me and I got super scared,” he told the 911 operator, adding that he was worried for his wife and newborn.
The teenager allegedly fled the yard and was found unresponsive in the road a short distance from the home.
Police said marks on the homeowner’s vehicle were consistent with an attempted burglary and a rock and car battery were found near the scene.
O’Mara, who has called for a grand jury to determine if the homeowner should face charges, said he was “frustrated” by Seminole-Brevard State Attorney Phil Archer’s office describing the shooting as self-defense hours after it happened.
“Who the hell are you to say with that little evidence that this is self-defense?” O’Mara asked at Tuesday’s vigil. “You have a 911 call that says, ‘I shot at him to scare him off.’ That’s not self-defense.”
Assistant State Attorney Dan Faggard said officials determined the shooting was justified because Adrein was burglarizing the vehicle within the homeowner’s gated property. A person is justified in using deadly force to prevent death, great bodily harm or “the imminent commission of a forcible felony” under Florida law.
But O’Mara has argued a burglary would have to be against a person to justify deadly force.
“If you can’t tell that 6-foot black man is black, you shouldn’t be shooting at him,” O’Mara said.
Todd Brown, a spokesman for Archer’s office, criticized O’Mara for weighing in without seeing all of the evidence.
“We are disappointed that Mr. O’Mara continues to offer his colorful opinions to the media even though by his own admission, he isn’t aware of all of the facts and evidence in this case,” Brown said. “While it may serve his personal interest to engage in public speculation, regardless of the accuracy or legality of his demands, our office stands by its position that at this time, commenting on the investigation or speculating on any potential outcome would be both irresponsible and a disservice to everyone impacted by this tragedy.”
Brown confirmed the State Attorney’s Office still considers the case active.
Washington said her brother wasn’t the type of person to break into a random property.
“We’re very concerned,” she said. “We’re not going to stop until we see justice for him.”
At the vigil, Adrein’s 6-year-old cousin bent on one knee to contemplate the flowers, candle and angel placed among the curb at the teenager’s memorial. A little girl held up a sign nearly bigger than her with the handwritten question “Justice will prevail?”