The funeral for a Florida teen who died in a shooting devolved into violent mayhem over the weekend when mourners allegedly attempted a street takeover and cops fired mace balls at them.
Loved ones grieving the death earlier this month of Nigel Beckford, 19, in Boynton Beach claimed that officers unfairly attacked them after they had buried the teen and left the gravesite Saturday.
Five men were arrested, and sheriff’s deputies found four stolen firearms when the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office gang unit broke up the unruly situation, WPBF reported.
“We’re just coming from the graveyard!” Beckford’s aunt Shanna Burks could be heard yelling while filming the incident.
“Ya’ll dead a– wrong! Ya’ll dead a– wrong!” she screamed. “We just buried my nephew, coming from the graveyard. Have sympathy!”
The footage showed mourners dressed in white and purple outfits being handcuffed and put to sit on the sidewalk.
A deputy could be heard shouting, “Leave the area! Leave the area!” at one point during the confrontation before appearing to fire the mace balls at a crowd that was surrounding them as they made the arrests.
Burks later wrote on Facebook that she had been left with bruises and that officers had been “snatching kids out of the car, hitting them.
“This right here was so uncalled for,” she wrote. “This show you law don’t give a damn we couldn’t even grieve in peace at all yesterday.”
The five men arrested and later freed on bail were identified as Malik Lanard McGraw, Dylan Jayantione Stragh, Dwight Jamallantion Stragh, Jaedin Akwuame Stoveall, and Cardell Valcourt, according to WPBF.
McGraw, Stoveall and Valcourt were held for traffic violations including reckless driving and street racing, booking records show.
Dylan Jayantione Stragh and Dwight Jamallantion Stragh were arrested for resisting an officer, battery and inciting a riot.
Beckford was shot dead Aug. 8, and a 17-year-old youth from Boynton Beach was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and discharging a firearm from a vehicle in relation to the attack.
It is not clear why the shooting took place or what the relationship between Beckford and the 17-year-old was.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a Post request for comment.
