SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A man who was fatally shot in a confrontation with federal agents had stumbled into a Springfield drug investigation, an attorney for the man’s family said.
Craig Lowther, a lawyer hired by Caleb Slay’s mother to look into his Nov. 2 death, said the confrontation happened after a U-Haul driver who was suspected in a drug exchange came to a stop. Slay then got out of a different vehicle to talk to the Drug Enforcement agents who pulled up behind the U-Haul.
James Pokryfke, a DEA spokesman, said in an email, that during that conversation “a physical altercation between the agents and Slay occurred, which resulted in Slay being shot.”
Lowther, who spoke to a witness, said Slay was talking to one DEA agent when a second DEA agent tried to tackle Slay from behind. He said Slay did not know what was happening and he flipped the second agent onto the ground.
“He never hit him,” Lowther said. “He did not start punching him. He didn’t do anything.”
Lowther said that’s when Slay was tased, shot three times and handcuffed. He died at the scene.
Slay carried a gun because he once worked as a bouncer at a Springfield nightclub, Lowther said. But he said Slay never displayed it.
“My information is that he had his hands out,” Lowther said.
The agents were transported to a hospital as a precaution and have since been released. Pokryfke referred additional questions to Springfield police, who declined to comment.
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