Mother says slain man was threatened before police shooting

Ralph Ban­warie

The moth­er of a 30-year-old North Man­zanil­la man shot and killed by po­lice has re­ject­ed the of­fi­cial ac­count of his death, claim­ing he was tar­get­ed at his home and was al­ready dead be­fore be­ing tak­en to hos­pi­tal.

Lu­cel Bap­tiste, moth­er of Justin Bap­tiste, said her son had been giv­en a par­cel of land by a fam­i­ly friend, where he built a small shack to live and cul­ti­vate crops. She al­leged that a man from the area, who re­port­ed­ly re­sent­ed Justin’s pres­ence on the land, had been threat­en­ing him. Bap­tiste fur­ther claimed the man has rel­a­tives in the po­lice ser­vice and that some res­i­dents of North Man­zanil­la were hos­tile to­ward her son.