Local residents gathered that morning at the memorial site in the working-class neighborhood and marched to the police station for a spirited noon rally and picket line, then marched through downtown.

On the morning of April 30 Irvington police officer William Mildon shot and killed 29-year-old Bilal Colbert as he was driving two children of his companion, Tashonda Boyd, to school. Boyd and Colbert also had a three-month-old baby. Colbert was stopped at a corner store in a working-class neighborhood near where the two girls' grandparents live, while Shaquita Boyd, age 10, went inside to get some snacks to take to school. Eight-year-old Shanice Henry was in the car with Colbert. According to witnesses, including Luis Santana, the manager of the grocery store, Mildon approached the car and ordered Colbert to get out of the car. When Colbert didn't comply with the order Mildon shot him in the neck and killed him.

According to Irvington police department spokespeople, Mildon said he approached Colbert because his car had a stolen license plate and then shot him because he was backing the car up as if to get away. Mildon's lawyer, Patrick Toscano, even claimed that the cop was protecting his own life and the lives of the children in the car. He said that Colbert, who was unarmed, struck Mildon with the car door when he backed up the car and that one of the children was also struck by the car. Both Mildon and the child were taken to the hospital and found to have no injuries.

Some neighborhood residents told reporters and leaders of the NAACP that the cop had been threatening Colbert for some time. "Everybody around here knows this cop was after Bilal," said neighborhood resident Ayesha Fleming.

In 1997 Mildon shot and killed 24-year-old Keion Williams at a traffic stop only a block away from where he killed Colbert. A grand jury in that case took no action against him.

At the rally, William Rutherford of the NAACP called for Mildon to be immediately suspended without pay. The cop has been on paid medical leave since the shooting.

Larry Hamm, a leader of POP, called for an independent prosecutor to investigate the incident and "an independent civilian review board with subpoena and prosecutorial powers" to oversee the Irvington police. He pledged support to Rutherford, who has been threatened with a libel suit by Mildon's attorney for publicly denouncing the cop as "racist," "murderous," and "deranged."

Willie Humbert, Colbert's brother, described how his life has changed since the murder. "I played basketball with the Irvington police department and then they go and kill my brother. I don't care if I lose my job" as a city employee, Humbert declared, "something should have been done four years ago and I am going to make damn sure it's done this time."

Besides Colbert's family, several family members of earlier victims of police brutality made brief, deeply felt statements.

"Nothing was done when my son was killed," said Patricia Williams, Keion Williams's mother, who flew in from Fayetteville, North Carolina, for the demonstration. "Had something been done [before], we probably wouldn't have to be here today."

"We've got to start standing up, my sister," stated Maretta Short, representing the National Organization for Women. "Black women are under attack again" from assaults on abortion rights to police brutality against our children.

Demonstration organizers distributed leaflets to onlookers during the march and many motorists loudly showed support for the marchers, who closed two lanes of traffic on the busy downtown street.

"What he [Mildon] did was wrong," said Tammy Daniels, a young Irvington participant and friend of Colbert's family. "They're supposed to protect us and they're killing us."

"The police have no rules and they do what they want," explained Oran Murray, 24-year-old machine operator from Newark, New Jersey, who carried a handwritten sign saying, "I want to know are they troopers or Klansmen?"

Democratic Party politician Albert Sharpton arrived at the end of the protest saying, "They must understand that when you shoot one of us you shoot all of us. We are not antipolice. We are antipolice brutality."

Further actions were announced including a statewide demonstration in Trenton May 16.
 
 
Related articles:
Stand up to cop brutality
Cincinnati protesters condemn leniency for killer cop
Conviction won in 1963 racist bombing
Penn State students respond to racist threats  
 
 
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