New Questions Surround NE D.C. Shooting

The Trinidad neighborhood says he was shot in the back. The U.S. Park Police say they were there for a reason.

With tempers flaring and the police unable to say anything about why they shot and killed 25-year-old Trey Alexander Joyner, there have been plenty of questions about what really happened in Trinidad on the night of June 8.

But late Thursday afternoon, FOX 5 found out from Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) that the inquiry has been mired in confusion about who would really lead the third-party investigation.

"You bet your bottom dollar I am going to have an eagle eye,” Holmes says. “Will the real investigator stand up please?"

Almost two months ago, Joyner was shot in an alley way just off of Holbrook Street in Northeast D.C. As rumors spread that Joyner had been shot as many as seven times and in the back, an estimated 200 people spilled out into the streets.

The community quickly called a meeting, where tempers continued to boil over at a lack of answers.

Norton says, "That room was packed with people who just didn't want to hear it. Not only because of this shooting, but whenever there is a police shooting. People don't want to hear it, they are very angry and I tried to make people understand."

Norton says she asked the U.S. Attorney General for a special investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

"It’s a unique situation, so I thought the best investigator would be one that has a track record for that,” she said.

She says the Civil Rights Division has a long-standing reputation for “investigating police impartially."

But Norton says she’s now been notified, more than a month later, that the local U.S. Attorney’s office will lead the investigation. Norton says its not who she wanted and it took more than a month to get answers, but at least now the investigation will finally begin.

"I have been told there is a ‘Civil Rights Unit’ in the department. I don't know what that means," said Norton. "If there was such a unit, it should have been spelled out. They are going to have to spell it out to me in my office and then I think the community needs to understand precisely what is happening, what is the course of the investigation, when is it going to be complete and who is undertaking it."