The nine-year-old daughter of a black, unarmed man shot dead by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun is speaking out in an emotional interview.
Rumain Brisbon, 34, was killed after an officer feared the suspect was armed during a struggle.
Now his daughter is making a plea to law enforcement across the country as she talks about how unnecessary the killing was, and how her father will never see her grow up.
I felt like that it really didn't need to happen,' young Aiyana Raines told Fox 10.
'He is going to miss our birthdays and how my little sisters grow up, and how we grow up because she is the only one and I am only 9, and my sister is only 10, and my dad is not going to be here for our happy moments and our sad moments.'
As for the moment she found out that her father had been killed, little Aiyana said, 'I started crying cause I really didn't believe that my dad got killed.'
The Phoenix Police Department claim Brisbon was sitting in a Cadillac SUV on Tuesday evening and that witnesses told an officer he was selling drugs.
When he was approached, Brisbon fled after several demands to show his hands, and during the scuffle the officer felt a pill bottle in his waistband, which he believed was a gun.
'The officer gave the suspect several commands to get on the ground but he refused to comply, yelling profanities at the officer,' the Department said in a statement.
'Fearing Brisbon had a gun in his pocket the officer fired two rounds striking Brisbon in the torso.'
He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said Brisbon was carrying a vial of oxycodone pills, and that a semi-automatic handgun and a jar of marijuana were found in the SUV.
Aiyana now has a message for that officer.
'To the officer that killed my dad, let me tell you something. You hurt three little girls that looked up to their dad.'
'I am hurting, but I have to stay strong for my dad and my little sister,' she said.
More importantly, she wants people to know that above all else, her dad was a 'good dad' and that 'the officer did not have the right to shoot my dad or kill him.'
Court documents show that Brisbon had a criminal record including burglary, DUI, narcotics, and paraphernalia related charges.
