Exclusive: Councilman asking for transparency on Christopher Jordan’s death

Reporter: Annette Montgomery
Published: Updated:
Christopher Jordan

A family waiting for answers is getting help from the council members tasked with serving them. They are asking for more transparency from the law enforcement agency that shot and killed Christopher Jordan during a standoff.

In November, Jordan’s sister called 911, saying she felt threatened by her brother.

When Fort Myers police arrived, Jordan locked himself in a home on Stella Street.

After 45 minutes, police claimed Jordan pointed a gun at the officers.

They then shot and killed Jordan.

Councilman Johnny Streets sent a letter to the chief of FMPD, along with the city manager, telling them they needed to talk about this shooting.

Now in an exclusive interview, Councilman Streets is telling us what he is asking for.

“I somewhat empathize with the chief, but at some point in time, people want to hear from their leader of the police department. It’s not to explain in detail what happened,” Streets said.

On Monday, Streets sent a letter to Jason Fields, the chief of Fort Myers Police Department.

In it, he said he’s well aware the details regarding the investigation cannot be released, but a statement to the family, community, and city council should have been released.

This comes as Jordan’s family and the Lee County NAACP have been calling on transparency from the department and reassurance that a thorough investigation would be done.

“There’s just too much of not knowing by the family and the community,” said James Muwakkil, NAACP president of Lee County. “Who’s the officer that’s responsible, who made this call? Who told the officer [to] shoot?

“You got to let them know we’re not getting into releasing this or releasing that. Just ensure by looking in the community’s face by looking in the officer’s face, and we just go and do the right thing. Regardless of what comes out, we did the right thing,” Streets said.

Councilman Streets said he offered to help with transparency for the city and the police department in this letter.

“Perhaps the infancy of this police administration may not have the experience that I may have had in police-involved shootings, so I wanted to say, ‘Hey, I’m here, if you need me, this is what we need to do,'” Streets said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the investigation, but no other information is being released at this time.

Councilman Streets, along with the president of the NAACP, has a meeting with the police chief and his command staff on Thursday afternoon.

For the first time since the officer-involved shooting, Chief Fields responded to our questions. He sent us a statement that says, “While I cannot provide an update on the recent Stella Street investigation, I can assure the community that a fair and impartial investigation is being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into the events that took place on December 1st.”

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