COCOA, Fla. — A woman told Channel 9 that she wants to know why Brevard County deputies fatally shot her 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old boy in a car in Cocoa on Friday morning.
Cynthia Green said her son, Sincere Pierce, and his friend Angelo “A.J.” Crooms were killed in the shooting but a third person in the car was uninjured.
On Tuesday, Green shared with Channel 9 video of her son getting into the car with his friend in her driveway minutes before his death.
“When they pulled around that corner, I seen the (deputy) sheriff’s car coming behind, so I followed the (deputy) sheriff’s car,” she said.
Read: Dashcam footage released in officer-involved shooting that killed 2 teens in Brevard County
Green said by the time she arrived at Stetson Drive South and Ivy Drive, deputies had their guns drawn and were ordering the three people to get out of the car.
“I said, ‘Wait, please don’t shoot. My baby’s in that car. He just got in that car,’” Green said. “He told me, ‘Get your ... back in your car.’ I told him, 'I can’t do that. Please don’t shoot him. Please don’t.”
Gunfire then rang out.
“I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten. I can’t function,” she said. “I’m looking for answers, and I need good answers. They need to be straight answers.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that deputies were investigating an incident earlier Friday during which a vehicle fled from an attempted traffic stop at U.S.1 and State Road 528.
“A vehicle was observed in the area of Stetson Drive and Ivy Drive in Cocoa, where deputies attempted to make contact with the occupants,” Tod Goodyear, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said in a news release. “At that time, a deputy-involved shooting incident occurred.”
Green said she has not yet seen her son’s body.
“I have not been there to identify him because no one has called me to come and identify him,” she said. “They said they would let me know. Nobody let me know nothing.”
Read: Deputy fatally shot boy, 16, man, 18, in Cocoa neighborhood Friday
Famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump announced Tuesday that he is now representing the families of Pierce and Crooms.
“These parents are heartbroken, as any parents would be,” Crump said in a statement. “They deserve full transparency and speedy answers about who is responsible for the deaths and the circumstances surrounding their shootings.”
The deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure for police shootings.
The Sheriff’s Office does not use body-worn cameras, but agency vehicles are equipped with dashcams.
Read: 2 men injured in deputy-involved shooting in Cocoa neighborhood
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.
Reporter Melonie Holt contacted the agency with questions Tuesday but did not hear back.
“We want to thank everyone for their thoughts and their prayers,” Green told Holt. “We need it right now. We need it so much, so very much.”
Watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News and download the free WFTV news app for updates on this developing story.
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