Police and Sheriffs in the San Francisco Bay Area Shoot and Kill Two People on the Same Afternoon
February 9, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
In the city of Antioch in the San Francisco Bay Area, a Contra Costa Sheriff's Deputy responding to a "domestic disturbance" call shot and killed 29-year-old Dewayne Ward, who police claim was charging at him with a knife. One neighbor, speaking to a Contra Costa Times reporter, said, "No shooting should have happened. There could have been a better way."
On the same day, at a Home Depot in Emeryville, Emeryville police chased a Black woman, Yvette Henderson, for an alleged shoplifting incident into neighboring Oakland, a couple of blocks away. The cops shot her multiple times as she was cornered in a storage unit alcove. Police claim she had a gun (and now even claim she had attempted three carjackings). However, many of the people who gathered at the killing site were skeptical of the police story. One witness claims Yvette Henderson was running down the street screaming with a purse in her hand, while another woman who was on a bus (that Henderson tried to flag down) told Contra Costa Times, "The girl did not have no gun. She was waving her hands."
A vigil for Yvette Henderson was quickly called for, and over 70 people gathered at a makeshift site of candles and a "Stolen Lives" banner showing people killed by the police. The vigil included members of the Revolution Club, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and a wide number of groups and individuals who have participated in the recent upsurges against police murder. Also present were a few residents of the small neighborhood that is being encroached upon by the big box stores like Home Depot just a few blocks away. One of the residents was outraged that police let Yvette Henderson's body remain where she died for almost six hours, which reminded him of how the police in Ferguson left Mike Brown's body on the street for four hours to "terrorize" the people. He said "things are getting worse now,” pointing out how the cops had shot down "a woman running away from them."
A little over half the crowd then marched to the Home Depot to disrupt business as usual, and later returned to the vigil. As people discussed what is needed to do, an announcement was made by a SMIN member that people should come to the meeting called by SMIN for February 7-8 in Atlanta and prepare for a nationwide Shut Down Day on April 14.
People are watching closely for developments in these two latest cases of people killed by police.
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