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Family calls 911 for medical help, cops show up and kill son

Robby Soave Reporter
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A Georgia family claims they called 911 in order to get medical help for a member of the family suffering an adverse reaction to diabetes medication.

But instead of an ambulance, the dispatcher sent two police officers, who proceeded to shoot and kill the 43-year-old Jack Lamar Roberson in front of his mother and fiance.

“They just came in and shot him,” said Roberson’s fiance, Alicia Herron, in a statement to First Coast news. “He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down.”

The Waycross Police Department released a statement claiming that Roberson was armed with two weapons when the officers entered the home. He lunged at the officers, according to police, causing them to shoot him in self-defense. The department has not revealed what kind of weapons Roberson had in his possession.

But both Herron and Roberson’s mother said the department’s story is a lie.

“We don’t own two decent knives,” said Diane Roberson, the mother.

In a statement to The Florida Times-Union, she elaborated.

“We had no weapons in this house whatsoever,’’ she said. “My gentle lamb … He kissed me every morning, made me breakfast in bed, and they said he had two weapons.”

Herron said she saw her fiance take his diabetes medication, and worried he may have overdosed, affecting his mood and rendering him suicidal. Roberson had been suffering from depression ever since the family had moved to Georgia from Pontiac, Michigan a year ago. Roberson and Herron had been together for 10 years.

The police were initially told that they were responding to a suicide threat, but received an update before they arrived that Roberson had become “combative” and damaged the home.

Zelphia, Roberson and Herron’s daughter, also lives in the home. Diane Roberson claimed her granddaughter would need therapy to in the wake of her father’s death.

The two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation.

The Waycross Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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