Here’s what Rachael Rollins said after protesters stood outside her office calling for justice for Black men killed by police
Protesters included Hope Coleman, whose 31-year-old son Terrence was shot and killed by Boston police in 2016.
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A protest that drew about 100 people on Tuesday called for Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins to reopen investigations into Black men killed by law enforcement.
While Rollins noted in a statement that the cases in question, which include those of Terrence Coleman and Usaamah Rahim, according to The Boston Globe, happened before she took office, she said she is “committed to discussing these cases” with members of her Discharge Integrity Team. The team meets “at least monthly” to discuss potential excessive use of force, discharges, and incidents involving someone dying from an encounter, or while encountering, a member of law enforcement.
“If any new information or evidence is available, I ask that it be directed to my office,” Rollins said in the statement. “We remain committed to making sure that every decision made by the Suffolk County DA’s Office — irrespective of when or under whose administration — are based solidly in law, thoroughly investigated and are reasonable and just.’’
Tuesday’s protest ended at Rollins’s office, and was organized by Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
“We are calling to reopen all the cases of police brutality because the history of judicial bias calls all these decisions into question,” Brock Satter, one of the protest organizers, said during a press conference outside Rollins’s office, noting that this is happening all over the country, not just in Boston.
One of the marchers was Hope Coleman, the mother of Terrence Coleman, who she said suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Terrence, 31, was shot and killed by police in October 2016 after his mother called an ambulance – he had spent a couple of days mostly sitting outside and she was concerned about him. Authorities claimed at the time that he was shot when he pulled a knife on EMTs; Hope Coleman disputes that.
During the press conference, Hope Coleman gave an emotional account of what happened to her son, who was shot twice by police that night in 2016.
Hope Coleman holds up her fist as she marches with other demonstrators in Boston.
She called for justice for her son, and said that authorities shouldn’t have shot him. She said she wouldn’t have called for an ambulance that night had she known what would happen.
An online Change.org petition also calls for the reopening of cases involving people being killed by police. As of Wednesday afternoon, over 4,000 people have signed with a goal of 5,000.
“We, the people demand that the local and state prosecutors do their job as elected and RE OPEN THE CASES to bring justice for the lives that have been stolen with impunity,” it says.
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