VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — People gathered to protest in front of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office Friday after a deputy shot and killed an unarmed man.
The protesters were chanting, "Justice for Derek" as they held signs and waved an American flag.
Emails have poured into the sheriff's office from several citizens who have expressed outrage, following Wednesday's fatal shooting.
WFTV found emails calling the deputy involved in the shooting a "cold-blooded murder," to others saying the sheriff's office "should be ashamed."
Derek Cruice, 26, was shot and killed by Deputy Todd Raible, 36, early Wednesday as deputies were serving a narcotics search warrant, according to investigators.
Deputies said they found 217 grams of marijuana, a scale, cash and other evidence.
Officials said Raible shot Cruice in the face after he perceived a threat.
Authorities said there were several people inside the home at the time of the incident but Cruice was the one they were after.
His roommates claim Cruice was not armed or resisting deputies.
Protesters told WFTV reporter Blaine Tolison that they will continue to speak out against the shooting.
One protester said, "We want justice and we want transparency from this sheriff's department of Volusia County and we do not want Derek to be made out as a resistor because he does not condone violence."
Friends of Cruice told Channel 9 he was not a violent person.
"He would not condone any use of violence at any time against anyone. We want justice now," a friend of Cruice's said Friday.
Others who were inside the house with him said he didn't have a weapon and wasn’t wearing a shirt, so it would have been hard for him to even conceal a weapon.
One of the men inside the house at the time of the shooting described the shooting as "murder."
Before protesters showed up to the sheriff's office headquarters, Sheriff Ben Johnson spoke to a small group of Cruice's friends, but did not speak in detail about the shooting.
"Anything I tell you right now will be premature and we want to make sure when we say it, that we say what is correct and let the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, they will take and gather the facts," Johnson said.
Johnson said it was not a SWAT team that entered Cruice's Deltona home, but rather a group of detectives and deputies serving a search warrant. He said they did not enter the home by force.
The FDLE investigation could take several months will be turned over to the State Attorney's Office when it is complete.
"For the sheriff's (department), they need to do their part. They need to go ahead and do their investigation and get down to the bottom of it and people on the other side, violence isn't going to solve anything," Curice friend Ruben Nazario said.
"It's a tragic tragic thing that everybody is saddened by," said Johnson. "We have to get to the bottom of it."
On Thursday, Johnson spoke with the Volusia County Council after he said his deputies received a flood of email and social media threats.
There are more comments online on Facebook and Twitter, including some that include indirect and outright threats.
Resident Bobby Brumblow didn't send an email but said he is happy so many others did.
"As human beings, we're all part of God's creation that shouldn't be destroyed," he said.
But some residents said the deputy was right to open fire.
"I think that the sheriff's office and the police officers put their lives in danger every single day and we're not given the whole story and (officers) know more about what's going on," said resident Jackie Minger.
Officials said much of the outrage is based on misinformation, saying it was not a "no-knock" warrant.
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