Corey Jones, a 31-year-old drummer who went to high school with Superbowl champ Vince Wilfork, was shot and killed by Palm Beach Gardens, Florida police officer Nouman Raja earlier this month. As previously reported, Wilfork and his Houston Texans were preparing to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars about 300 miles southeast when they heard the devastating news.
Although the details are hazy, the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department reports that Raja was in plainclothes when he pulled over on Interstate 95 to inspect Jones’ broken-down vehicle and was confronted by an “armed subject,” who Raja shot three times. A gun was found on the scene, but Jones’ attorneys claim he did not fire his weapon and his car had broken down on his way home from a show.
Now, Wilfork has come forward, demanding justice for his friend who was slain by police. “It’s a tough situation to be in, especially for the immediate family,” Wilfork said, via the team’s official website. “But at the same time, everything has consequences. We’re working now hard to figure things out. We’re going to continue to get justice and that’s how it is right now …”
“The crazy thing is, it’s not the first time this has happened. We’ve seen a lot of this going on in society, but especially when it affects you personally, when it’s your own family, that’s for me to be in the spot that I’m in, it just gives me an opportunity to speak about it. I’m not bashful about speaking about it. I have tons of respect for law enforcement. I have friends that are police officers and cops, so I have nothing against them … But at the same time, we’re dealing with somebody that was shot dead. We have to figure it out as a society. Not just this case, but the cases that have been going on for a while now. We have to try and figure out a solution. I think everybody needs to be held accountable, plain and simple,” he said at a press conference Thursday.
Wilfork’s cry for justice echoes a broader kindling of the Black Lives Matter movement in professional sports. LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant and many more have taken public action, using their respective platforms to raise awareness and call for immediate action.
