Sesler's son, 27-year-old Demitreus, died after being shot six times in the back by Minneapolis police on the morning of April 2.

Sesler and her husband Clyde made the four-hour trip from their farm in Brooksville, Florida, to the Tribunal meeting with her sister and several Tampa-area residents who support their efforts. Much of Sesler's testimony recounted the lies and abuse that she and her family have been confronted with at every turn in their attempt to gather the facts of the case.

From the coroner to the sheriff's office to city hall to the congressman's office and the Justice Department, "no one wants to talk to you," Sesler said. "They even gave me a phony case number." But, she said, "I do not intend to sit around and let my baby's death be in vain."

According to Hennepin County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Roseann Campagnoli, the cops who killed Demitreus Sesler--Brandy Steberg and Jason King--were in the area of the shooting investigating a break-in at a nearby business when a Jeep Cherokee drove by. Campagnoli told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the cops began to chase the vehicle, and claimed to have seen a long-barreled gun. The cops allege that when the car stopped in an alley, Demitreus, who they say was a passenger, jumped out with the shotgun. Then, they say, King fired from outside the squad car and Steberg fired while still sitting in the driver's seat. According to Campagnoli's report, the driver sped off after the shooting, and was believed to have fled on foot.

Frances Sesler told those gathered at the People's Tribunal meeting that none of this story makes any sense to her. Demitreus had left home a few minutes before the shooting, driving his own car to work, she said, and "I don't believe there was any other driver."

Among those who have come forward to help, she said, is a man who says he saw the police frisking a young Black man outside a car that meets the description of Demitreus's car. This took place on a bridge near his house. "How the vehicle got to the alley where they claim it stopped, I have no idea. And if he was waving a shotgun at them, how is it that he was shot six times in the back?"

The Sesler family was not able to see Demitreus's body for several days and not until after it was embalmed without their permission. "They destroyed evidence right there," Frances Sesler said. "The coroner said that they do not call the next of kin to identify the body, and when I insisted on making an identification, I was only allowed to look at a mug shot taken after the shooting."

Minutes after Demitreus was killed, two policemen arrived at his house and demanded of his companion to be let in. They held her and her baby, the daughter of Demitreus, under virtual house arrest until others arrived with a search warrant. They proceeded to ransack her house, took papers and documents that belonged to Demitreus, and for six hours refused her requests to call Frances Sesler to let her know that her son may have been killed.

"Now every time I see a cop, I get so aggravated. They are supposed to be upholding the law, and here they are--they make the laws and then they break them. Steberg and King belong off the force and in prison."

There were four fatal shootings by Minneapolis police last year, and the shooting of Demitreus Sesler was the second in less than a week. A few weeks later Minneapolis Sgt. John Pielow on April 28 killed Efrain Depaz, a 21-year-old Mexican worker, who police falsely claimed had a gun. Frances Sesler told the People's Tribunal, "Efrain couldn't speak English and was 50 percent deaf. The cop approached his car with his gun drawn and shot him in the neck." She said that they told his brother Fidel, "Oh, well--accidents happen." She added that three of the most recent victims of police killings in Minneapolis were mentally retarded. Alfred Sanders, a Black worker, was killed a few months earlier with 37 rounds of bullets.

Frances Sesler referred to several other cases. "Nathaniel Brazill, a 14-year-old child who shot his teacher, was sentenced to life in prison. He had his whole life in front of him, but it's over now. But they are trying to give the cop in Cincinnati who killed Timothy Thomas nine months in jail. What kind of justice is there in that? And what about the Klansman in Birmingham who killed four young girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963? It took 38 years to bring him to justice. They let him live his whole life."

"I know there's a lot of work ahead of me," continued Sesler, "and I am so appreciative that I am not in this alone. Other people are coming forward, and there have been marches and meetings up in Minneapolis to protest the killings of both Efrain and Demitreus."

In a telephone interview on June 20, Ron Edwards, longtime civil rights advocate, a former chairman of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, and member of the executive committee of the Minneapolis NAACP, said that he has filed more than 200 cases over the past 30 years on police killings, police brutality, and other violations of civil rights.

"I am quite disturbed by the treatment of Mrs. Sesler by the authorities here," stated Edwards. "It is one of the most disrespectful things I have seen in more than 40 years. The FBI refused to open an investigation, the Assistant U.S. Attorney, himself an African American, sat across the table from her and did nothing. Obviously, the federal authorities felt that they needed time to let the cover-up take place."

Several participants at the People's Tribunal meeting who came from Atlanta circulated photographs that they took the day before at the June 9 Rally for Racial Justice and Workers' Rights in Columbia, South Carolina. Gladys Williams, from the South Georgia Vegetable Producers Cooperative, encouraged the young people at the meeting to consider participating in the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange in Havana July 22-30. Six of the activists signed up to learn more about going.

The People's Tribunal was formed in September 1998 in response to the arrest, beating, and subsequent death in his jail cell of Willie Williams. His brother, Mosel Williams, explained to this reporter that the police have never acknowledged their responsibility for his death even though "the autopsy report said that the cause of death was a blunt force tremor to the head" and that "he suffered a broken neck, broken arm, two teeth knocked out, and bruises all over his body." The family "filed charges against the police, and we are still working to bring the case to trial." The Tribunal has organized sustained protests to show that "we are not giving up."

Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the Tribunal, told the meeting, "We have to believe in our ability to get things done. People who are oppressed must accept responsibility for getting rid of their oppression." Rose reported that the Tribunal members are involved in efforts to remove the Confederate battle flag from public places. As a result of large protests the state legislature decided to replace it, but the new flag has not yet been distributed. He also introduced a woman who is fighting discrimination at her job with the Department of Public Works.

Frances Sesler said, "When we come together as a group we can accomplish a lot. We can be the strength for each other in times like this."
 
 
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