500 weeks after West’s death, his family continues rallies
For the 500th Wednesday vigil since Tyrone West’s death in Baltimore Police custody, a parade of cars traveled downtown from Northeast Baltimore, demanding justice for West and others protesters described as victims of police violence.
“We’re here to hold folks accountable,” West’s sister Tawanda Jones said Wednesday afternoon as the caravan lined up at Herring Run Park.
Every week since West, 44, died during a chaotic scene after being arrested in a traffic stop on July 18, 2013, his family has held a Wednesday vigil demanding accountability for the Baltimore Police officers who oversaw West, as well as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office.
“Five hundred weeks is too long to be doing anything,” Jones said, especially when “reliving the horror” of West’s death.
Wednesday’s caravan traveled first to the North Baltimore intersection of Kitmore and Kelway roads, where West died. Seeking to demand accountability from several of the agencies involved in West’s death and the ensuing investigation, the parade of about 25 cars traveled to the Northeast District Police Station on Argonne Drive, then to the medical examiner’s office, before concluding at Baltimore City Hall.
A single father of three who worked at an office supply warehouse and performed home-improvement jobs with his uncle, West was “a church man” and up-and-coming artist when he was killed, his family said earlier this year at a rally catalyzed by the January death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-yearold who was beaten by Memphis, Tennessee, police.
The weekly “West Wednesdays” aim to keep West’s name visible long after his death and have provided a space over the past nine years for a coalition of community members and groups to discuss police violence and accountability. On top of the weekly events, West’s family has rallied consistently at city police accountability protests and meetings.
“We’re more than hashtags,” Jones said. “He meant nothing to those animals ... but he meant everything to us.”
In 2013 officers stopped West after they saw him and a female passenger ducking down in his car, which was spotted backing into an intersection on Kitmore Road, according to the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, which declined to press charges against the Northeast Operations Unit officers and a Morgan State University campus officer involved.
When an officer tried to inspect West’s shoe, which ultimately turned out to contain cocaine, he began to resist, the prosecutor’s office said.
Police and witnesses said West fought with officers. In statements released by prosecutors, officers acknowledged that they punched West, struck him with batons and pepper-sprayed him but denied any wrongdoing on the part of police.
The medical examiner’s office ruled that West died because he had a heart condition that was exacerbated by the struggle with police and the summer heat.
A forensic review of the autopsy, performed by Dr. William Manion in 2015, contradicted the assertion that West died of a heart condition and concluded that he died because “he was restrained in such a way that he was unable to breathe.”
A second autopsy commissioned by West’s family agreed that he died from “positional asphyxiation” while being restrained. Dr. Adel Shaker, a former medical examiner in Alabama and Mississippi, said West “was not able to breathe during [the] restraint process when he was held down by police officers sitting on him.”
The reviews were conducted as the family prepared a lawsuit against city and state officials, which ultimately was settled for $1 million.
A 2014 independent review commissioned by the police department faulted the officers for escalating the situation into “dangerous chaos.”
The case played a role in Marilyn Mosby’s successful challenge to former State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein in the 2014 Democratic primary, when Mosby criticized what she called Bernstein’s lack of “transparency” regarding the death. Mosby declined to reopen the criminal case against the officers after she was elected state’s attorney.
Since then, West’s family sees hope in a massive review of Office of the Chief Medical Examiner autopsies conducted while the office was headed by Dr. David Fowler, the former state chief medical examiner who later refused to label George Floyd’s death a homicide during former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s trial on murder charges. The independent audit will focus on about 100 cases involving people who died after being restrained by law enforcement.
Jones said she still is waiting for information from the audit team.