Devastated family of black man, 25, shot dead in St Louis days after Michael Brown lash out at police for dragging heels with investigation

• Kajieme Powell, 25, shot dead on Aug 19, 10 days after Michael Brown
• More than 3 months later, his family still don't know who shot him despite witnesses filming the attack - where his corpse was handcuffed
• His live-in grandmother Mildred believes cops angry over reactions to Michael Brown's death were 'trying to get rid of as many as they could'
• Aunt Kathleen Tucker claims they 'intentionally' killed Kajieme
• Kajieme wanted to be a cop, he found it hard to discuss Brown's death

By Daniel Bates for MailOnline In Ferguson, Missouri

Published: 20:57 EST, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 20:59 EST, 22 November 2014

The family of a black man shot dead by a cop in the same city as Michael Brown just 10 days later have accused the force of ‘hoping that it would go away’.

Relatives of Kajieme Powell said the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department is deliberately dragging their heels with the investigation - three months after the killing.

They still don’t know the names of the officers involved and they have been forced to file a wrongful death lawsuit to find out the basic facts.

Kajieme’s family spoke of their simmering rage and how they believed he was shot by cops who ‘intended on killing him’ and ‘filled him with bullets’.

In a bitterly ironic twist, the 25-year-old once wanted to be a policeman but his grandmother Mildred persuaded him not to.

Distraught: Mildred Powell had been living with her grandson Kajieme, 25, when he was shot dead in August

We need answers: She said the St Louis Metropolitan Police Force will not reveal who shot her grandson

Tragic: Footage showed Mr Powell (above) being killed in the street by police and his corpse was handcuffed

Wiping away the tears, she told MailOnline: ‘I guess they were upset over the other boy (Michael Brown) and they were getting rid of as many of them as they could, that’s all I could say.’

Kajieme was shot dead by two white St Louis Metropolitan Police officers on August 19 after shouting ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’ and walking towards them with a knife in his hand.

The killing happened amid heightened tensions in St Louis and came after Brown, 18, was shot dead by white Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, sparking riots and protests that exposed deep racial divisions in the city.

But unlike Brown’s death, Kajieme’s death was captured in its entirely on video taken by a passer by and showed that within 20 seconds of two policemen pulling up in their SUV he had 12 bullets in his body.

The officers then handcuffed him, even though he was already dead.

As the Grand Jury is expected to reach a decision any day on whether to indict officer Wilson, MailOnline spoke to four members of Kajieme’s family to see what could be learned from a case which has disturbing parallels.

They talked with eloquence, insight, frustration and rage at how his life ended so soon.

At her home in the Baden neighbourhood of St Louis, where Kajieme was living at the time he was killed, Mildred said that she tried to watch the video but had to leave the room at the point where the shooting started.

The 70-year-old retired airport worker said: ‘He never did raise his hand.

‘They claimed he had a knife. When he gets upset he holds his hands to his side and they be real stiff.

‘So I don’t know why they done him like that. I guess they were upset over the other boy (Michael Brown) and they were getting rid of as many of them as they could, that’s all I could say. He never done anything to anybody.’

Kajieme’s aunt Kathleen Turner, 48, a FedEx worker could barely contain her anger.

She said that the officers ‘didn’t warn him to get down’ and that they ‘intended on killing him. They filled him with bullets.’

She said: ‘They could have talked to him...It was like they could finish it so they could get back to whatever they was doing.’

'Intentional': Mr Powell's aunt Kathleen Tucker accuses police of intentionally killing her nephew

Grieving: Eric Mays said his cousin Kajieme had found it impossible to talk about Michael Brown's killing

Horrified: The family has been forced to file a lawsuit to get to the bottom of who killed Mr Powell

Kathleen’s husband Joel Tucker, 54, said that Kajieme was ‘not a confrontational type of guy’ and that his behaviour that day was not typical.

He added: ‘To get into the minds of what caused them (the officers) to do that, we can’t speak to that.

‘But what we can say is this: the things that took place, the way they took place, it could have been handled differently.

‘There have been other situations when the police have gone and they have come to a scene where it was even more violent.

‘They tazed them. We see videos all the time online. To ride up on a situation and to get out with your guns drawn, that said I intend to do harm.’

One of the family’s attorneys, Tanya Harris, said that basically it boiled down to a ‘matter of consideration’.

She said: ‘He deserved more than a matter of seconds of consideration...in a matter of moments Kajieme’s life is over.

‘For what? Because you didn’t come to the scene to try to contain the scene, to try to assess the scene. That’s what the big concern is for the family.

The family’s other attorney, Jermaine Wootten, confirmed to MailOnline that Kajieme was suffering from a mental illness - they are awaiting his medical records to reveal what exactly.

But the video of Kajieme’s killing makes clear that there should have been warning signs for the officers that this was a disturbed man.

Even though it was a blisteringly hot August day Kajieme is seen wearing a hoodie.

He is seen pacing back and forth and talking to himself - passers by deem his behaviour so odd that they stop and stare and call him ‘straight up crazy’.

He has put the two cans of drink he allegedly stole from the convenience store moments before on the sidewalk and is walking around them saying: ‘I’m tired of this s***’.

When the police arrive Kajieme initially backs off but then walks towards them saying: ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’

The cops can be heard saying repeatedly: ‘Put the knife down!’

Kajieme climbs up onto small wall and onto a car park and walks towards the officers.

When he is about 12ft away they open fire with nine audible shots - Kajieme drops to the floor and does not move.

On the video a passer by can be heard reacting with disgust as the officers handcuff his dead body.

He says: ‘He's dead. Oh my god. They just killed this man. He didn't have a gun on him. Now they're cuffing him. He's already dead. The man is already dead.’

New life: Mr Powell moved into his grandmother's St Louis home (pictured) months before his death

Captured: Michael Hassel filmed the moment Mr Powell was shot by police on August 19

The video contradicted the account put forward immediately afterward the incident by St Louis Metropolitan Police chief Sam Dotson.

He said at a press conference that Kajieme pulled out the knife and approached the officers holding it high - the video shows Kajieme’s hands were by his sides at all times.

Chief Dotson also described Powell’s death as ‘suicide by cop’.

The police were originally called because Kajieme was suspected of stealing two energy drinks and a cake from the Six Star Market convenience store, which is five blocks from his home.

But his family revealed for the first time that he actually did odd jobs in the shop and that he used to get paid in kind by helping himself to a few drinks or snacks.

On the day he was shot the man he had the arrangement with was not working behind the counter, meaning that what was normal for Kajieme could have seemed like theft to somebody who didn’t know him.

Kajieme’s cousin Eric Mayes, 33, a sports trainer, said that this is one of the reasons why Brown’s death has received more attention - because Kajieme was ‘labelled a thief’.

Joel said: ‘I feel it’s really important that the perception that he was some black guy that goes in and shoplifts, it’s important that perception is dealt with.

‘He did actually work in that store...what the public was told was not the total story. To me that’s important’.

Kathleen feels that Kajieme’s state can be explained because of how he was frustrated with all these killings, all these senseless killings’.

Joel said: ‘It wasn’t like he’s this crazed, another young black male out here on a tangent.

‘No he wasn’t on drugs, it was nothing like that. I believe it was a culmination of the frustration of not being able to get employment, to be able to stand and be independent the way he wanted to.

‘And when you have the type of demeanour, that I’m going to be compliant as possible with those things that I’m faced with, but I’m doing this day in day out, month after month and I’m trying to make a change and now we have all this…

‘...there were frustrations and for them to speak, saying this young man is acting erratically - how many of us have had a day when we’ve had it, you know?’

Kajieme was born in St Louis in 1989, a day Mildred remembers well because she was there to hold her daughter Karen’s hand.

She also remembers being amazed that the newborn began looking all around him as soon as he was born, already curious about the world.

Kajieme idolised his grandfather and wanted to become a Sears heating and cooling technician just like he was.

A picture of Kajieme in his 20s the family gave MailOnline shows a good looking young man in a sharp suit with a pair of aviator shades hanging from his shirt.

Another shows him in the sun with a warm, easy smile.

Incriminating footage? This is the moment Kajieme Powell was shot dead by unnamed officers

Despite obtaining footage of the shooting, unlike Michael Brown's, the investigation has remained stagnant

'Getting rid of as many as they could': His grandmother believes police reacted to Michael Brown's death

Mildred said: ‘Kajieme wanted to be policeman for a while and I said no because you might get with somebody, the wrong policeman.

‘I don’t know why he wanted to join the police but I didn’t want him to, so I told him. I worried he might get with a crooked policeman and whatever he done would make agree that’s how it happened or something like that, and I do, I know they do that.’

At 13 Kajieme and his mother moved to Tennessee then New Jersey, finally setting in New York.

Last December he returned to St Louis and lived with Mildred where they ‘looked after each other’, she said.

She cooked and he dusted the mirrors that were too high for her, but easy for him as he was just over 6ft tall.

Kajieme’s daily routine was simple: he would go to the library in the morning where he would use the Internet to apply for jobs. He liked to draw and loved comic books.

He and Eric would hang out in the afternoon. They were talking about getting a small business together doing heating and cooling, just like he had always hoped of.

Mildred said: ‘He was living here. He told me: "Oh granny, this is so good".’

On the day he died, which Mildred remembers as the day before her mother’s birthday, Kajieme left home earlier than usual.

By early afternoon Mildred had heard somebody had been shot in the neighbourhood.

Four o’clock came and he hadn’t come home.

She said: ‘I heard somebody knocked on the door and I peeped through the peephole and saw police standing out there. I thought to myself "Oh lord, it was him"’.

Identifying his body ‘hurt so bad I could hardly move’, she said.

The mayor of St Louis and the St Louis Metropolitan Police chief came by her house that night and expressed their condolences. The officers who looked after her said they were sorry.

And then nothing - for three months.

Joel said: ‘It appeared they were hoping that it would go away’

Mr Wootten told MailOnline: ‘Kajieme’s family are disheartened that his death has been forgotten about and with the Michael Brown verdict he is clearly being overshadowed.

National outcry: Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown (right) has sparked mass violent conflict

Emotions running high: Brown's parents (pictured) have called for Officer Wilson to be indicted

‘They feel that the Metropolitan Police Department is being taken off the hook.’

Among the most egregious issues is that the police will not release the name of the officers who shot their son, citing a ‘threat assessment’ that has still not been completed.

That was one of the main reasons they filed the unlawful death lawsuit which wants $25,000 in damages for officers’ use of unreasonable force which breached his constitutional rights and subjected him to punishment without jury trial.

Mr Wooten said: ‘They should reveal the names. The family have the right to know. It was fortunate that somebody was out there videoing it.

‘If not we know the story that would have been put out, that Kajieme came at the police with the knife in an overhead motion and attacking the police’.

Kajieme’s family feel that ‘justice will be served’ and they show remarkable restraint and patience in a system which is at best taking its time, and at worst working against them.

In the meantime what they are desperate to do is appeal for change in what Miss Harris sums up as ‘training and protocol’.

The family feel that if officer feels he can get away with anything just by saying he felt his life was in danger, it gives them too much license.

Joel said: ‘You have to think, it’s a lot of power to give someone to be judge jury and executioner.

‘That’s a harsh statement but when you determine when a life is taken, that bypasses in my opinion the legal system.

Clashes: President Obama appealed for calm in the city where hundreds have been arrested since August

High security: Police have been armed with grenades and military vans to prepare for the grand jury verdict

Fears: Authorities expect violent reactions to the decision which is expected to be reached next week

‘You’ve determined this person is guilty and worthy of execution. Those issues need to be addressed; to what degree do we take some of that away from those that are out here who are supposed to protect and serve…

‘...What need to be addressed is how do you handle a potential threat where there is mental unstableness.

‘You don’t approach that person you approach a guy who is doing it but with his reasoning faculties.

‘This approach that was taken was like we’re just going to eradicate the problem, wham, this guy is psychotic, I know that the system needs to evaluate, by special training, redecation, whatever needs to be done, there needs to be a different response to how you handle a situation like that.’

Kathleen said that she does not think all police in St Louis are racist, but their training needs to be much better.

She said: ‘They should not be able to hide behind ‘I felt threatened or you had a gun’

‘They’re police officers and if they want to be held in such a standard they have to live in such a way, and they’re not.

‘I’m not saying all policemen are rotten but...they need to do something and whatever laws need to change and it’s not just in Missouri, it’s all over the United States.’

Before Kajieme died he and Eric could barely avoid what happened to Brown - the wall-to-wall media coverage meant that it was a constant hum of despair echoing across St Louis.

But Eric said that when they were together, they made a point of not talking about it.

He said there was a silent agreement that if they did then the anger would only take them to a bad place.

He said: ‘Kajieme wouldn’t acknowledge it. He would shake his head. It would be on the radio and he’d look out the window.

‘To us there was nothing to talk about.

‘It was just wrong.’

The St Louis Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.