FILE PHOTO: Family and supporters attend the funeral for Corey Jones at the Payne Chapel AME of West Palm Beach, Florida October 31, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Stocker/Pool/File Photo/File Photo
(Reuters) – A former Florida police officer was due to be sentenced on Thursday for fatally shooting a black motorist in 2015 without identifying himself as a police officer as he approached the man who was waiting for his car to be towed.
Nouman Raja, 41, faces a maximum of life in prison after he was convicted last month by a jury of manslaughter and first-degree murder.
Raja was fired from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department after he killed 31-year-old Corey Jones and was charged in 2016 with using unjustifiable force.
Police said Raja was in plainclothes and driving an unmarked van when he encountered a car he thought was abandoned on a West Palm Beach highway exit ramp on Oct. 18, 2015.
Jones, a professional drummer, was in the car. Police said Jones pulled out a handgun that he had legally purchased three days earlier before Raja fired at him six times within 13 seconds. Raja hit Jones three times, and Jones died of a gunshot wound to his chest.
Raja’s defense team has argued that their client feared for his life when Jones drew his gun.
According to prosecutors, an audio recording of the incident showed Raja did not identify himself as a police officer.
“Without that tape recorder, he (Raja) would have lied and his proclamation that he was standing his ground would have reigned supreme,” Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Jones’ family, said at a news conference after Raja was convicted.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by David Gregorio