Shooting victim denies he had fake weapon

The police have launched an internal investigation to determine if two police officers were justified in shooting a man in the shoulder. While the police claim they thought the suspect was armed, the victim has a very different story to tell. News Five spoke with Curtis Flowers and his mother at the Karl Heusner Memorial this morning. His mom says no matter what her son did, or didn’t do, police had no right to shoot him.

Jacqueline Woods

“It was around nine Tuesday night when Flowers claims he was inside Constitution Park, sitting on one of these park benches waiting for a friend when two men whom he recognized as police officers in plain clothes walked towards him.”

Curtis Flowers, Shooting Victim

“I got up and walked out of the park. I went up the street and afterwards I saw them start following me. I no know why they were following me, then afterwards I went to take off. I started and one of them started firing shots.”

Flowers says he was on Banak Street when he felt a shot hit him in the back of his right shoulder. Flowers says he does not know why the police officer fired at him. But police say they approached the young man inside the park because he was acting in a suspicious manner. Police claim they shot at Flowers because he went into his pocket and pulled out an object that looked like a gun. The police later identified the object as a fake gun when they retrieved it at the scene.

Curtis Flowers

“I was really in a dark spot so I don’t know how they would say they would see me with something. I was at, lets say about twenty five feet away or more than that from them so they didn’t see me with nothing, you know.”

Q: “So you never has a gun? You never reached into your pocket and you never throw away anything into an open lot?”

Curtis Flowers

“No.”

It is not the first time twenty-two year old Flowers has been in trouble with the law. In 1996 he was sentenced for twenty months on a burglary charge. This time, however, his mother says she does not know what unfolded Tuesday night but says the police did not have to shoot her son.

Glenda Flowers, Mother

“I just want the police to have feelings. No care if he is a criminal or what but they are human beings. They shoot and then they still turn around and kick him. I understand if he did wrong then he has to pay for the wrong but they must do it in a human way. They can’t do what they are doing all the time.”

Q: “If you recognized them as police officers and you saw them following you why didn’t you just turn back and ask them what they wanted?”

Curtis Flowers

“Well I no have no dealings with them so I no want to deal with them.”

Flowers remains in the K.H.M.H. in a stable condition, but the bullet which entered his upper back shattered the bones of his arm. He will remain hospitalized for at least another week. As soon as he recovers, Flowers will be taken into police custody for resisting arrest. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

Although Curtis Flowers told News Five he never had any imitation gun on the night in question, he has told other media houses that indeed he had a fake weapon.