BY CRAIG HONTS
RIVERSIDE, California - Five hundred demonstrators marched
through this Los Angeles-area town January 4 to protest the
police killing of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller. The action was
organized by a coalition of Riverside religious, civil rights
groups, and family members. Angry shouts against the police
punctuated the march, and when one speaker at the rally stated
that "not all cops are bad," many demonstrators responded with
shouts of disagreement. Early in the morning December 28,
Tyisha Miller pulled into a gas station with a flat tire and
called her cousins for help. When her relatives arrived at the
gas station, they found her locked inside the car and
unconscious. She seemed to be having a seizure. Alarmed by
this, they called 911 for medical help. Instead of doctors, the
police arrived.
Rev. Bernell Butler, Tyisha Miller's uncle and a spokesman for the family, said, "The police arrived in a `shoot' state of mind, a `kill' state of mind. The police version of what happened keeps changing. First they say they arrived and she had a gun in her hand, she started waving it at them, and then fired it. Then the police had to drop the part about her firing the gun, then they had to drop the part about her waving the gun. We really don't know if there was a gun in the car at all. We do know that she was unconscious the whole time the police were there."
Four police officers fired off their semiautomatic handguns at Miller, leaving 27 casings on the ground around the car. A coroner's report showed that the young woman was shot four times in the head, once in the chest, and seven other places.
Before the autopsy report was released on Thursday, December 31, more than 150 people gathered at a meeting organized by Black leaders to ask police about the investigation. Butler stated that what is needed is for the city of Riverside to indict the four cops on charges of murder, so that a trial can take place. "The police here have a shameful history of violence, against Blacks, against immigrants, and against others. Who gave them the power of God?"
Antoine Jones, another of Miller's uncles, added, "They say the cops are paid to protect us but we've never seen it. Blacks, poor whites, Mexicans-we're just statistics to them."
Another demonstration has been called for January 7 to protest the killing. Miller's family and others are also publicizing the funeral, which will take place two days later.