Family disputes police account of shooting teen

FREMONT — Family and friends of 18-year-old Nathaniel Prasad of Hayward who was fatally shot by seven Fremont police officers last week, held a vigil in his honor Thursday near the intersection where he died.

They said they don’t believe the police version that Prasad pointed a gun at officers after running from a traffic stop at Fremont Boulevard and Nicolet Avenue the evening of April 12.

Police said Prasad fired at officers, noting three expended shell casings were found in a gun next to Prasad’s body.

Along with civil rights lawyer John Burris, the family called for transparency from authorities.

“We keep seeing what’s written about him and it does not seem to fit how he was,” said Prasad’s father, Danny Prasad. He noted his son had graduated high school through independent study and was “waiting for his gown” while looking at colleges.

“The police, they’re saying ‘These are the type of people we need to take off the streets,’ and all those other hurtful comments,” Danny Prasad said. “He was just a scared little kid.”

Prasad’s cousin Ryan Lal, 17, of Hayward, said police should release all of the video they have of the incident.

“When the evidence is released that shows where he had a gun, and he actually pointed it on the body cams, then I’ll believe it,” he said. Lal posted this video on his Twitter account of Prasad singing a Taylor Swift song,

Janna Juarez, 16, of Fremont, said she had been dating Prasad the past year and a half and news of his death was her “worst nightmare.”

“I never thought anything like this would happen,”Juarez said, adding she’s mad at everybody involved, including Prasad.

“I’m mad that he ran, that he just didn’t cooperate,” she said.

Juarez said she hopes the vigil will show that Prasad was a “normal person” and that he was loved.

“He had friends, he had family, he had people to support him, who cared about him. He was not nothing, he was something to people.”