Activists share stories of locals killed by police
Chauvin guilty verdict prompts call for action
As national attention remains on Minneapolis after the cop who murdered George Floyd was convicted, activists rallied outside Orlando City Hall on Saturday with families of local victims of killings by police, with one message: “Don’t forget us.”
The Movement Coalition, an activist collective created last year following protests against racial injustice and police brutality, gathered several families from Central Florida to re-tell their stories of loved ones killed by police.
Included were the families of Sincere
Pierce and A.J. Crooms, two teens killed by Brevard County deputies on Nov. 13 while trying to flee a traffic stop in the general direction of Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda after they were incorrectly suspected of stealing the car.
He won’t face charges, Seminole-Brevard State Attorney Phil Archer announced on Wednesday.
“[Authorities] sent their report to the media, but we sent our lawsuit to the court,” said Orlando-based lawyer Natalie Jackson, who represents the families of the victims along with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. On Friday, they filed a federal lawsuit against Santiago-Miranda and Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey, partly alleging the deputy’s criminal history should have kept him from being hired at the agency.
“When Sincere died, it tore my heart. It made me feel like I don’t want to live’“Cynthia Green, Pierce’s great-aunt and foster mother said. “And I’m not going to let them get away
CRISTÓBAL REYES/ORLANDO SENTINEL with this. If I have to keep traveling and traveling, I will travel until there is no more energy in my body.”
Many of the families of the victims mentioned during the rally were unable to attend, organizers said, including Jorge Gómez’s mother, who lives in Kissimmee.
Gómez was killed during a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas, which authorities said — and family lawyers dispute — was the result of Gómez pointing a gun he was openly carrying at officers. Nevada is an open-carry state.
Attorney Bradley Laurent told the story of Salaythis
Melvin, an Orlando resident shot in the back and killed by an Orange County deputy at a Florida Mall parking lot. The killing sparked protests at the Florida Mall for weeks as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated that shooting.
It has since been sent to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, elected last year on promises of criminal justice reform, for review, and James Montiel, the deputy who fatally shot Melvin, has since returned to duty.
Lawanna Gelzer, leader of the Movement Coalition, said the collective is planning a march, possibly this coming week, in honor of Melvin, whose Aug. 7 killing pushed the Orange County Sheriff ’s Office to more quickly release body camera footage from deputy shootings after community backlash forced the policy change.
“Our state attorney made a lot of promises to y’all,” Laurent told the crowd. “She was at our marches, she was talking about the George Floyd case. I hope you hold her to those promises.”
Families who attended were handed yellow roses, a symbol of solidarity. Gelzer, a pillar of Orlando’s activist scene and an ardent critic of the sheriff ’s office and the
Orlando Police Department, said she and the Movement Coalition will continue to support victims’ families at future rallies.
According to Mapping Police Violence, a comprehensive database tracking shootings and killings by police, Orlando police officers have killed 18 people from 2013 to 2020 while Orange County deputies killed 13 in the same period.
The chances of Black people being killed by law enforcement is more than four times higher than a white person in both jurisdictions, according to the data. It’s unclear how many officers and deputies, if any, were charged or convicted in the shootings in recent years.
“Ask yourself why in Central Florida you haven’t heard about some of these families and the pain that they’re going through,” Gelzer said. “They’ve got a great PR team, the City of Orlando and Orange County.”
The several dozen people who attended the rally were also encouraged to tour the Hall of Injustice, a showcasing of Black and Latinx victims of police violence and the stories of race riots throughout U.S. history. The showcase, vetted and compiled by the Movement Coalition, features more than 600 names with their ages and the dates of their deaths.
Organizers said the Hall of Injustice is periodically updated. As rally participants toured the showcase, many gathered around Gelzer, who at one point told the story of how she was stopped at 11 years old while riding a bike she got for Christmas by police, who accused her of stealing it.
Shaina McSweeney, who is white, toured it for the first time on Saturday, calling it eye-opening.
“We know that this is a problem in our nation, but to see the amount [of photos], especially just within this year, is quite shocking,” McSweeney said. “When we hear of these things on the news, we get emotional, but to actually hear someone in person speak about the racial inequalities they have faced, it makes me realize how much my life is different. And the only reason is because of the color of my skin.”