A teammate of Demetrius DuBose examines what led to his fatal 1999 encounter in San Diego.
Twenty-eight years ago this month, John Kouris was a starry-eyed walk-on at the University of Notre Dame, a freshman wannabe tight end chasing a dream of football glory and answering to coaching legend Lou Holtz.
“Everything turned black and I was cross-eyed,” he said. “I immediately started sobbing. It was horrible. Somebody that was so good to me.… I should have called him.” The death last May of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis jump-started the Black Lives Matter movement and spawned worldwide calls for reform that continue today.
Kouris was in San Diego last week to interview DuBose’s friends and others familiar with what happened to his old mentor. His next stop was Seattle. Kouris said he has met with a major streaming company about distributing the film once it is completed. DuBose was selected by Tampa Bay in the second round of the NFL draft in 1993, and played there four seasons before being signed — and cut four months later — by the New Yorks Jets.
The two had spent much of July 24, the day DuBose died, playing volleyball. They had plans to attend a barbecue that night, but when they got home West began tinkering with some new software that had been delivered that day and DuBose left to watch the sunset.DuBose, who toxicology records would show had traces of alcohol, cocaine and the drug Ecstasy in his system, had climbed over a railing to his neighbor’s balcony for a better view of the sunset.
The officers tried using nunchakus to subdue DuBose but he was able to wrestle them away. Police opened fire, shooting DuBose 12 times, including five times in the back.Hundreds of people march in San Diego on Nov. 5, 1999, to protest the decision by Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst that Officers Timothy Keating and Robert Wills were within their legal rights to use deadly force in the fatal shooting of Demetrius DuBose.
Right away, the shooting provoked outrage in the Black community. Demonstrations were staged across the city for days. Police and city officials urged calm and pleaded with people to await the results of independent investigations.
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