The FBI is investigating a 2013 death of Jermaine McBean, a computer engineer shot by Broward Police in Florida while walking home with an unloaded air rifle, a court filing shows. The Justice Department said it had received a complaint about the shooting and had asked the FBI to review the case for possible civil rights violations, according to letter sent to Sheriff Scott Israel by the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Miami division. Police have said McBean ignored their call to put the rifle down, and that he pointed the gun at them near a pool filled with children. They said he did not have anything in his ears that would make police requests difficult to hear. But as NBC News reported in May, a photo taken by a witness and only recently disclosed shows McBean was in fact wearing earbuds when he was shot. The Broward County Sheriff's Office has denied the family's accusations of a coverup and said in court papers that McBean was to blame for his own death.
