Imagine calling the police department for help and watching your cousin shot to death as a result. That is exactly what happened to Tyisha Miller's family.
Tyisha Miller was a 19 year old African American woman who was shot and killed by four white Riverside, California police officers on December 28,1998, in front of her family. As a result, the community has come to the aid of the family. Dick Gregory, Reverend Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King, III were among the demonstrators..
We should protest this senseless killing of our dear sister. We also must look at how we can prevent this from happening again.
According to reports, Tyisha was laying down on the driver's side seat fully reclined waiting for relatives to help her change a flat tire. When her cousins arrived at the Riverside gas station, they were unable to wake her in her locked car. She also appeared to be having a seizure, so they called 911.
The police said that she was unconscious and foaming from the mouth. They banged on the windows, shined lights inside and shook the car. When one of the officers attempted to break the passenger side window with his baton and reach for the gun, Ms. Miller sat up, lifted a pager and stared at him. He then backed away. The police saw a handgun in her lap.
This is when help turned into tragedy. The police then moved her cousins to a distance and shouted for Tyisha to get out of the car.
The account of the police was that Tyisha woke up suddenly and fired one round. The officers said that they feared for their own safety and returned fire. One of her relatives said that he counted 27 shells that were scattered around the car. She was hit twelve times, four times in the head.
Another cousin said that the officers reloaded their weapons several times.
Tyisha's cousin, Antoinette Joyner, said that she didn't get up. She was still laying down.
The officers were on administrative leave while the investigation was completed.
On May 6, 1999, the Riverside district attorney, Grover Trask, said that the four officers acted in haste and in error, but were justified in shooting an unresponsive, armed young black woman found sitting in a car.
On May 14, 199 the Riverside Press Enterprise published excerpts from a 2000 page police report that criminalized Tyisha. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, director of the Coalition Against Media Exploitation, said, "The report played to every stereotype about blacks and could be viewed as a ploy to justify the shooting of Miller."
The Coalition calls on the Press-Enterprise to:
· Print a balanced story
on Miller's life based on complete interviews with friends, family members,
school officials and co-workers.
· Request that police release full details
on the background and behavior of the four officers involved in the Miller
shooting and publish the details in a feature story. The Coalition will present
its call to Riverside Press-Enterprise on Monday, May 17, immediately following
the protest march and rally scheduled at 10:00 AM at Riverside City
Hall.
Write or forward this to:
Riverside
Press-Enterprise
Executive editor: George Rodrigue
909-782-7672
(ph)
909-782-7572 (fax)
Email: grodrigue@pe.com