RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The family of the man shot and killed by Raleigh police last week said the incident doesn’t make sense.
The officer shot at 52-year-old Keith Collins 11 times.
“I cannot understand why the police would shoot him down like that. I just can’t get over it,” said Collins’ mother, Gloria Mayo. “You’re not supposed to bury your children. Your children are supposed to bury you.”
She said Collins had physical and mental disabilities. He had the comprehension level of a third-grader.
“He loved everybody,” said his mom. “There’s nobody that did not like Keith.”
Last Thursday, she said Collins bought a BB gun at Walmart and then walked to Big Lots.
She doesn’t know why he bought the BB gun, but she said she knows he would never hurt anyone.
“Keith wouldn’t hurt a fly. He loved children. He was in church all the time.”
Collins was then on his walk home when someone called 911 reporting him as acting strangely in a shopping area on Pleasant Valley Road. The caller said what appeared to be a gun fell out of his shirt, he picked it up and put it in his pants.
The report goes on to say an officer tried to speak with Collins, but he ran from him after briefly placing his hands in the air.
Police said as Collins ran, he reached for his waistband and denied commands. The officer then fired four shots at him. He said Collins pointed the gun at him, leading him to fire three more times.
Police said Collins tried to get up and point the gun at the officer again, leading the cop to fire four additional shots.
Collins then collapsed.
His mother said she can’t bring herself to watch the body-camera footage.
“I can’t see him like that because to shoot somebody — anybody, anybody, I don’t care who they are. Young, old, white, black, whatever. To shoot anybody that many times and they’re on the ground, and you’re going to shoot them some more?” said Mayo.
She hopes to find justice as investigations take place.
The officer is on administrative leave while criminal and administrative investigations are conducted.
