Protests in Denver over Death of Young Hispanic Shot by Police

DENVER – Dozens of relatives and friends of Jessica Hernandez, 16, who was shot to death by local police earlier this week, on Tuesday marched to demand that charges be filed against the two officers involved in the incident, saying that the teen’s death was “unnecessary.”

After the march to the offices of the Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, the members of the so-called Community Defense Committee of Denver asked in a petition that authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding the girl’s Monday morning death in one of the city’s northeastern neighborhoods.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Denver police chief Robert White acknowledged that the two officers used their weapons, that each fired several shots and that “there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

The incident began when a police officer on patrol noticed the presence of a suspicious vehicle. The car’s license plate enabled the officer to determine that it had been stolen Sunday night, whereupon backup was requested.

When a second patrol car arrived, both officers tried to get the vehicle’s driver – Hernandez – to stop but, they said, she accelerated, hitting and injuring the leg of one of the men.

The officers opened fire, focusing their shots on Hernandez. The other four occupants of the vehicle, apparently all minors, were uninjured.

Via a communique released on the social networks, the Community Defense Committee said that Hernandez was “unarmed” when she was killed and asked for a firm stance against police violence.

According to the committee, the investigation should focus on a videotape, apparently recorded by a resident after the shooting, in which a handcuffed girl can be seen being questioned by police. But the girl seems not to be responding to the police.

The committee wants to know whether the girl in the video is Hernandez and whether she was already dead when the images were taken.

As in normal procedure in such cases, the two officers have been placed on “administrative leave” while the investigation is under way, a probe being conducted by the police, the district attorney and the Office of the Independent Monitor, a civilian oversight agency for the city.

This is the third incident in less than a year in which local police have killed young Hispanics inside vehicles.