Longtime Decatur City Councilman Billy Jackson called for the firing of the officer who shot and killed Stephen Clay Perkins and for police chief Todd Pinion to either resign or be terminated.

Speaking at the end of Monday night’s city council meeting, Jackson said he believed the police department had “failed.”

“It’s pretty clear for me, but I’m not a police officer,” Jackson told the crowd. “But it’s pretty clear for me that this should not have happened,” Jackson said Monday evening. “So the thing that I was basing my opinion on was policies and procedures. And what policies, what procedures allowed our police officers to be out there at that time of night for something that could have been dealt with a week from now, ten days from now, two weeks from now?”

A Decatur officer shot and killed Perkins during the early morning hours of Sept. 29 in the front yard of Perkins’ home on Ryan Drive Southwest.

Police said Perkins threatened a tow truck driver attempting to repossess his vehicle. The tow truck driver left the house but returned later with officers. In a press release, police said Perkins turned a gun toward the officer, “causing the officer to fire.”

Security camera footage released by the Perkins family showed that it was dark outside when Perkins walked out into his yard shining a light and shouted for the tow truck driver to put his vehicle down. Police appeared to emerge from the dark as an officer shouted for Perkins to drop a gun.

“I don’t know of any policy that would justify that,” Jackson added. “I don’t know of any procedure that would have allowed us to go out there at that particular time in aid of, or in assisting a tow truck driver at that particular time when all we had to do was turn on the lights and knock on the door,” he added. “But the thing is that if police officers are outside my house and all the lights are on, and the blue lights are flashing everywhere, I’m not coming out with a gun. I’m just not. To me, that’s suicide.”

Jackson called for the firings and arrests of all of the officers who went to Perkins’ home that night.

“I came here tonight with the intention of asking for a separation with Chief Pinion,” Jackson said. “I was going to ask either for his resignation or termination. I don’t have anything against chief. I like chief. But the fact very simply is all policies and procedures stop with the chief.”

“Again, I don’t have a problem with the chief on a personal level, but I do think our department has failed,” Jackson added. “And I think that our citizens, whether it was a Black citizen or a white citizen or any other citizen in our community should not have been treated this way. This was an injustice in my opinion.”

At the meeting, several members of the public shared their grievances about Perkins’ death with the police and the elected leaders. Protests continue in the city more than a week after the deadly shooting.

Nick Perkins, brother of Stephen Perkins, asked, “What is this council and this mayor doing to help implement new changes and policies and procedures for this police department?”

“Nick, let me start by telling you again I’m very, very sorry about the loss of your brother,” said Mayor Tab Bowling. The mayor said he was working with the police department, as Chief Pinion works with the command staff.

When Nick Perkins asked about what the city leaders are doing to pressure the Morgan County District Attorney to arrest the officers, Bowling referred to the ongoing state police investigation of the shooting.

Chief Pinion spoke briefly at the meeting — before Jackson called for his ouster — and said he’s heard the community’s concerns. He said that he recognizes he’s “got work to do.”

“And I will do everything I can to get that,” the chief said. “I will work on everything. I know we have issues. We’re human. We have issues. All right? I haven’t wiped anything away, haven’t tried to hide anything. I’ve got some work to do.”

After one speaker asked why the officers who were at the scene of the shooting are still receiving payment from the City, the mayor said he was just following the recommendations to him only to put the officer who shot Perkins on paid administrative leave.

“Let’s say this particular employee, he works for the police department, and his supervisor meets with our HR. Department and typically the legal department, and they make a recommendation for some type of action from the office to the office of the Mayor,” Bowling said. “In this case, the action that was presented to me was for an administrative leave, so that’s what I approved, and that’s what’s taking place.”

Councilman Jackson said he believes the mayor should be able to do more than what the recommendation says.

“I do think that the officers should be terminated, Mayor; I do think that they should be arrested,” he said. “And I think that they need to be made immediately. And, now, I could be wrong. But I do think that the Mayor can override any recommendation made by any department head and can make those changes.”

The mayor announced that he would not seek re-election in 2025, but said he made the decision three weeks ago, before the shooting.

Jackson said he had known Perkins and his family for many years.

“This hurts me deeply,” he said. “For this to have happened in our community, it hurts me deeply for it to happen to somebody who I’ve known my entire, or his entire life, basically—I’m a good bit older than Steve was—but it’s just it’s something that’s painful, and I think that we do need to make changes in our police department.”