NEW IBERIA, La. — A mother in New Iberia is demanding answers from authorities after her son was shot by police.
Kimberly Antoine says her son, Travis Antoine, reacted as anyone would when he fled the scene after police approached him at the intersection of Dale and Center streets Tuesday.
"He was scared, so what he did, he fled the scene,” said Antoine. “You waking up out of a sleep, what would you do if somebody was pointing a gun to your face?"
Antoine’s family says he was under the influence of synthetic marijuana when he went into a deep sleep behind the wheel.
His mother says it shouldn't have escalated to guns, and wants the city’s police department to take action.
"I believe this officer should be on leave,” she said. “He shouldn't even be on the force right now until the outcome of the charges, because there was no weapon involved with my son."
According to the State Police report, NIPD officers attempted to wake up a man in the driver's seat while another police car was positioned in front of Antoine's car. The report says both officers told Antoine to exit the car, but he fled the scene.
"As soon as he took off y'all shoot. Really? And y'all want people to trust y'all,” said Belinda Veronica Green, one of Antoine’s aunts. “How you want people to trust y'all if the first thing you see my color, you shoot. And we need y'all. That's the stupid part. But we don't need y'all to kill us."
She says if the bullet had hit a main vein instead of grazing Antoine, they would be planning a funeral.
"They're no different from us. If they want us to be held accountable for what they think we do wrong, well, then they need to be held accountable for what they do wrong. Enough is enough of this,” said Mildred Doucette, another aunt of Antoine’s.
His mother also says by officers shooting at her son, they put other lives in danger.
"Y'all was shooting through traffic. People that were passing. My God. Really?” she said.
The family tells me they think the officers, if anything, should've shot at the tires of the car as Antoine fled instead of through the rear windshield.
KATC reached out to NIPD to see what the protocol is when a suspect leaves a scene. A spokesperson for the department said they can’t comment because the case is still under investigation.
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