“There was no justifiable cause for the stop on 9/11 that led to the trooper murdering my brother.” “We are here to seek justice for my brother,” Vereen’s sister Marion said at a Wednesday news conference. Vereen, 33, died later that day at a nearby hospital. Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said Vereen got ahold of Benton’s stun gun, biting and shocking the trooper before Benton shot him once in the chest.
It was about him driving while Black in South Carolina with a broken windshield,” lawyer Harry Daniels said.Īuthorities have said a brief chase ensued before Vereen crashed his car into a utility building, started running and wound up in a tussle with the trooper. The family’s attorney maintains that Benton pulled Vereen over for a broken windshield, so the initial reason for the traffic stop was illegal and Vereen had the right to resist his arrest.
