DECATUR, Ala. — Councilman Hunter Pepper has made his stance clear in the case of justice for Steve Perkins. "The point that I'm trying to get across is this isn't about me," he said. "This isn't about the protesters. This isn't about anybody. This is about what is right and what is wrong.
"My stance is, we need to support the police in this matter and until wrongdoing is found or evidence is presented that shows factual wrongdoing, then I'm going to have to back the police in this situation," he continued. "I would hope that everybody else would as ... everybody needs to understand that if there is a lawless community, then we're up the creek without a paddle."
In a letter sent to media outlets after 1 a.m. Monday, Pepper again shared his disappointment with Mayor Tab Bowling's decision.
"I guess you can say I'm very discouraged with the decision that the mayor has made to not fight for what I believe is right and also, to my understanding, fight for what quite a bit of individuals believe is right," Pepper tells FOX54. "Instead of waiting for the proper amount of evidence to be released to him, or if he has that evidence, you know, as I stated in my letter, my question is, you know, how do you have this evidence? And if you do, you know, you need to step up and say something about it so the rest of us can be informed in this situation."
A policy investigation led to the termination of 3 officers and the suspension of an additional officer, Pepper questions how the investigation was handled. "I went through it, and I believe that they had found some policies that were broken, to my understanding, with information that has been released to myself, or I guess you could say leaked to myself, the policies that were violated are completely irrelevant to the shooting itself. So, my question is, you know, what are those exact policies? how many were violated?"
Pepper notes that in situation like this, more transparency is needed on both sides. "I'm going to call this more transparent on both sides of the table here," Pepper shares. "When I say both sides of the table, I mean the city side and Perkins family side. There's been a lot of individuals speculating on how what they believe has occurred, what happened, what didn't happen and it's very agitating not to see the Perkins family step out and say that there was some there was some things there's rumors going around that they're inaccurate. However, I believe those facts will come out in the near future and that everybody needs to be ready for that."
Unedited letter from Hunter Pepper:
A statement from Hunter Pepper regarding the death of Steven Perkins,
On December 7th, 2023, four officers were delivered the results of an internal hearing which concluded termination of three and suspension of one. As I’ve stated before, I believe this is wrong and that fair and due process that is given to employees within the Merritt system was violated not only by employees within the city by leaking information but by certain members of the council for making statements without facts or proof.
Steven Perkins had a gun. Those who are sworn to protect not only property owners but other civilians, acted upon how they were taught and trained. The officers in this situation were in the right. Officers throughout the last several weeks have received tremendous amounts of harassment, hate and abuse for doing what they are paid to do from members of the public, thus causing a decrease in moral within the department and has even caused officers fear of doing their jobs. As I believe the results of the determinations will cause a mass exodus within the department, I fear for the safety of officers who choose to stay for when they need help and the department is short, I wonder who will come. In the event of a decrease in staff, officers will also have higher response times to calls due to the already high call volume within the city which also causes me to fear for the safety of members of the public. As I’ve said many times before, we must support our police. If wrongdoing is found on either side, then the justice system will handle it, but I ask that we do not hang those involved until evidence has shown wrongdoing. The officers involved are human and that is something I believe most have forgotten, they have families, they are hurting just like everyone else and I pray that peace will come to each of them as this process continues and that they’re given fair treatment by those still involved even though some have already failed at allowing this.
As the mayor of our city said, “The officers involved will have a hearing – as they are entitled to under Alabama and federal law – and I will make a judgment following that hearing. Any suggestion that I have already made a decision is false.”
Today, I have to disagree with this statement and call the mayor out on his statements as you can see the determinations were correct. I find it difficult to understand why or how the mayor was able to make an informed judgment when according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, they are still waiting on evidence. My question to our mayor is how does he have this evidence when ALEA is still waiting or is the decision that was made based on pressure placed by the public? My assumption is going to be pressure placed by the public.
Mayor Bowling and I have worked well together even through our differences but on this matter, I believe wrongdoing has occurred.
While attempting to hold a press conference regarding these determinations, I prepared a statement that I was unsuccessful in reading due to my obstruction of view by the sunlight, thus causing myself not to get the correct statement out.
As protest have continued, individuals have shown anger and disappointment in not only myself but in city leadership as a whole as we have not been able to comment on the investigation due to lack of information because of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and for that I ask that you be patient, the rest of the information will be released when their investigation is complete which I hope will be done in a timely manner but conducted with transparency.
Let me be clear, this isn’t about myself, the protestors or anyone else. This is about what is right and what is wrong. I have empathy for everyone involved in this situation. While sitting at the council meeting on December 4th, 2023, I looked over sitting in the front row was a small child (later identified as Mr. Perkins seven-year-old daughter) sitting in the lap of Mrs. Perkins, I made eye contact with her as she began to cry. It brought tears to my eyes. Recently In early October, I lost someone close to me. As an adult I have been able to process what occurred and grieve in what I call a proper way. Last Monday I seen a child who doesn’t understand what is occurring and that hasn’t been able to grieve, she only understands that her father isn’t going to be there with her anymore, she isn’t old enough to process what happened and that breaks my heart as I have a niece who is young, and I can’t imagine having to explain that to her.
While my stance on this situation has not changed, my opinion is irrelevant just as I believe everyone else’s is without facts being presented which I hope will come soon. I pray peace will come to everyone affected by this and that everyone will pray for our city and everyone involved no matter what side you stand on or what you believe is right at the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of god.