DELTONA, FL – Police in Volusia County shot an unarmed man in the face while serving an arrest warrant for marijuana. Derek Cruice, 26, is dead after being killed by a SWAT team, which reportedly found 217 grams of marijuana and assorted paraphernalia at his home. The police are calling the shooting justified, but one of Cruice’s friends who was at the residence calls it murder.
Deputy Todd Raible shot Cruice in the face, claiming that he was resisting arrest as he stood, unarmed, in the doorway of his Deltona, Florida home. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson argued that “They were met with resistance and a shooting incurred.”
Cruice’s friend Matthew Grady who witnessed the event denies that there was any resistance. “There’s a couple of seconds between opening the door, walking out, getting to my knee and halfway out there’s gunfire,” Grady said. “I look back as the guy’s grabbing me, and my friend is dead or dying.”
The sheriff’s department confirmed that Cruice was not armed, and he was not wearing a shirt at the time of the shooting.
“It’s kind of hard to conceal anything or hide anything when this is all you have on,” remarked roommate Steven Cochran. “They entered the house and fired.”
Officer Raible, a narcotics investigator and SWAT member, reportedly has a clean record, but has been placed on administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement takes over the investigation.
Cruice had been arrested before on misdemeanor charges, but was never convicted of a crime.
