JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The friends and family of 28-year-old D'Angelo Stallworth, who was shot and killed by two Jacksonville sheriff's deputies Tuesday morning, held a vigil in his memory Wednesday night.
Early Wednesday the family's attorney, Eric Block, made allegations against JSO's investigation that stated that Stallworth picked up a gun, pushed it into a policeman, broke away after a struggle and was then shot and killed by officers.
Police also said they then found 126.8 grams of marijuana at the apartment where Stallworth was shot while visiting the mother of one of Stallworth's children.
He said he has witnesses who never saw a gun, a magazine or marijuana, as police claim, and now he's ordering an independent investigation.
The vigil took place at the apartment where the father of three was killed.
Social media is flooding with the hashtag #justiceforStallworth, but police said Stallworth pointed a gun at an officer Tuesday morning while they were trying to serve an eviction notice.
"It would be so easy for them to start rioting in the street and looting, and they are exactly the opposite. They don't want that. D'Angelo was a man of class and character and integrity and that's the way we are going to act," Block said.
In a news conference held by Block, the attorney called for peace, and that message was carried over into the night as family and friends hugged each other for comfort, placed candles on the ground and prayed with Stallworth's mother.
"He was my best friend growing up. I knew him since childhood. He was a great dude. A stand-up dude of the community. All he ever wanted to do was take care of his family. He's a family man," Travis Davis, a friend of Stallworth's, said.
Davis has known Stallworth for nearly two decades and, like many people who gathered at the vigil, he questions the validity of a JSO investigation.
"It's not right. This ain't him. This ain't him. He's always been a stand-up guy, appealing to the community," Davis said.
The autopsy for Stallworth was performed Wednesday but the family is now working to get his body released so they can get an independent autopsy.
That autopsy is scheduled to be conducted by a central Florida doctor by Saturday with results being returned by early next week.