Quentin Tarantino's remarks at an October rally in New York City to protest police brutality were brief, but they've touched off a firestorm of controversy that some hope will lead him to apologize, or retract his statement.

KRMG has found photos of the Hollywood director at that rally, holding a sign referring to a case in Tulsa.

We did some research into the case, involving a man named Justin Smith.

Tulsa police and deputies apparently tried to pull Smith over in August of 19998, leading to a pursuit that lasted about a half hour.

He eventually jumped from his car and ran, but was caught.

According to some accounts, he was beaten after spitting at officers, then taken to a gas station where an ambulance was called.

His mother, Johnsye Andree Penix Smith, maintains that her son was murdered, and was among those at the rally called "#RiseUpOctober" in New York City.

The Tulsa County Medical Examiner reportedly ruled that Smith died from acute cocaine intoxication.

Penix Smith has referred to police as "paid assassins," rhetoric not far removed from Tarantino's comments.

"I am a human being with a conscience, and when I see murder, I can not stand by, and I have to call the murdered the murdered, and I have to call the murderers the murderers," Tarantino told the rally.

Several police organizations, most recently the National Border Patrol Council, have called for a boycott of Tarantino's new film, "The Hateful Eight," due to be released Christmas Day.