Prescription drugs seized from a suspect were found in Nouman Raja’s car without him ever filing a report, it emerges, as Florida investigation continues

The plainclothes police officer who shot dead a 31-year-old black man in southern Florida was threatened with suspension at his previous department after holding on to prescription drugs that he seized from a suspect.



Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja, who killed Corey Jones, was reprimanded by commanders at Atlantis police department for being “derelict in the performance of his duties” by repeatedly mishandling evidence and paperwork, according to his disciplinary file.

Pills confiscated by Raja from a woman who obtained them without a prescription in January 2013 were discovered in Raja’s patrol car more than a week later. “Officer Raja said he never did the report and he never secured the evidence,” his sergeant wrote in the file.

The file was released by the Atlantis police chief, Robert Mangold, on Tuesday and first published by the author Ray Downs, as county investigators looked into Raja’s fatal shooting of Jones on an exit ramp of interstate 95 in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police union leaders warned the city was risking “another Ferguson” by withholding information.

Jones’s family has recruited Benjamin Crump, the prominent civil rights lawyer who represented the families of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice after they were killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio, last year. In a statement released through Crump on Tuesday the family said Jones had “dedicated his life to doing the right thing”.

“He lived every moment to the fullest and was an inspiration to many; the kind of son, brother and friend people could only hope for,” they said.

At a press conference, the Palm Beach Gardens police chief, Stephen Stepp, reiterated police claims that Raja, who had arrived in an unmarked police car, fired after being threatened by Jones. Police allege Jones was holding a pistol later found beside his car. “As the officer exited his vehicle he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject,” said Stepp.

Friends and relatives of Jones argue that the police account does not make sense and say he must not have known that Raja, who is 38 and was not wearing a uniform, was a police officer.

Family members said the 31-year-old, who played the drums, sent a text message saying he was waiting with his vehicle after it broke down on his return from a concert. They said he had a gun and a permit for carrying a concealed firearm for his job as a housing inspector for a public authority, but insisted he would never have threatened anyone with the weapon.

Stepp released little new information on Tuesday, citing an ongoing external investigation by the Palm Beach county sheriff’s office. He resisted requests from reporters to describe in more detail the interaction between Raja and Jones that preceded the shooting. Stepp said there was no dashboard camera footage of the incident and that no Palm Beach Gardens officers used body-mounted cameras.

Stepp said that at the time of the incident, around 3.15am, Raja had been working in a plainclothes detail assigned to tackle a recent spate of burglaries in the area.

Paperwork indicated that Jones had legally purchased his gun three days before Raja shot him, Stepp said on Tuesday. As well as finding the handgun outside his car, officers discovered the box in which the gun was purchased inside the car, according to Stepp.

The police chief expressed condolences to Jones’s family but said he had not yet been able to meet them.

Raja worked for Atlantis police between 2008 and 2015, according to department records, before he was hired by the Palm Beach Gardens department in April. Stepp said the officer had no disciplinary issues since then.

His Atlantis file showed, however, that internal inquiries into his failure to submit evidence or paperwork in the prescription drugs case – which resulted in a lack of prosecution – also turned up several other unfiled reports from various other cases to which he had been assigned. His sergeant, whose name was unclear from a signature, wrote that Raja accepted he had been at fault and took responsibility.

“Officer Raja is to be put on notice that any future incidents of this nature will result in a suspension,” wrote the sergeant, who recommended a written reprimand. The report and recommendation were approved and signed by Mangold, the chief.

Jones’s grandfather, Sylvester Banks Sr, addressed reporters after the press conference on Tuesday and thanked the public for their support. “I believe the best thing that can ever come out is the truth,” Banks said.

Banks also urged supporters to remain peaceful as information about the shooting is released. Palm Beach Gardens officers have reportedly received death threats since Jones died. The department’s Facebook page was deactivated because of “numerous posts containing profanity and negative racial comments”, officials said.

Stepp scheduled Tuesday’s press conference after repeated criticisms over the lack of information the department had released about the shooting.

Even the president of Palm Beach county’s police union called on the department to be more transparent in its handling of the case. “You don’t want another Ferguson, where they sat on information for days, and it seems like this is what Gardens is doing,” John Kazanjian said.

Acknowledging the combustible atmosphere, Stepp said on Tuesday: “I understand the public’s concern – we share that.”

The chief said the Palm Beach county sheriff’s office had asked him not to release material such as recordings of 911 calls or radio transmissions, photographs, notes “in order to maintain the integrity of the investigation”.