FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – Juvon Simon's family said many questions remain unanswered after the young man was fatally shot Wednesday by a Florida City police detective.
"He wasn't a bad kid. He wasn't a bad kid," Simon's uncle, identified only as Ross, said.
Simon's uncle said his nephew might not have been perfect, but that other young people looked up to him.
"And he was all about what was right. Even though they were hanging out and just being normal kids, it didn't call for that," Ross said.
According to detectives, two Florida City police officers were conducting a criminal investigation that lead them to an apartment complex in the 1400 block of Northwest Second Avenue where they made contact with Simon, 23, inside of one of the units.
Authorities said some sort of confrontation ensued and one of the detectives ended up shooting Simon, killing him.
But Simon's friends who were in the apartment remember it differently.
Breon Lester told Local 10 News that he was on the couch when Simon came running into the apartment yelling that the police were there.
Lester said he started to run away, but Simon was still struggling to close the door in front of the officers.
"As soon as I get, like, in the living room, I hear the shots. I turn around (and) I see him on the ground," Lester said.
Bullet holes in the door of the apartment show that two rounds traveled through the door from outside.
Bloody clothes were left inside of the home and now sit in a trash bag outside of the apartment.
Police said Simon was armed and that crime scene technicians found a weapon in the house, but his friends insist that isn't true.
"He didn't have no gun or no drugs. Matter of fact, he just woke up -- just brushed his teeth," Lester said.
Miami-Dade police detectives are investigating the shooting.
Florida City police and Miami-Dade police have not released further details about the initial investigation or the shooting.
