WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Family, friends and loved ones gathered for a funeral of a man shot dead by a police officer in Palm Beach County. Corey Jones, 31, was laid to rest Saturday.
Jones worked for a public housing agency, but music was his passion.
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"He would talk to you with his instrument. He really understood people. He really understood humanity," band member Boris Simeonov said.
There was a long line of people at Payne Chapel AME Church wanting to see Jones.
"Let's continue to celebrate his great life by focusing on some changes," said Jones' friend Clarence Ellington.
Jones, 31, was shot several times by a Palm Beach Gardens police officer. Early Sunday, Oct. 18, Jones' car broke down on Interstate 95 near PGA Boulevard. He was waiting for a tow truck.
The officer who shot him, Nouman Raja, was working an undercover operation. Raja wasn't wearing a uniform or his badge when he stopped Jones.
What happened next is still unclear. Local 10 News learned Jones had a gun, but never fired it.
"We're going to Washington. Not until a bill is passed that's going to stop this brutality," said Jones' uncle Steven Banks.
That's what Rev. Al Sharpton, national political activist, wants as well.
"We're standing at a funeral that should not have happened," Sharpton said. "If we do not stop this policing problem, it doesn't matter if it's a rich area, a poor area, a white area or a black area, this has got to stop because it's going on everywhere."
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