RALEIGH, N.C. _ Hundreds of people marched through downtown Raleigh Tuesday night, hours after a Raleigh police officer shot and injured a 26-year-old man.
With shouts of "no justice, no peace," and some people wearing masks, the crowd was followed by a heavy police presence as the protesters went from Fayetteville Street to Hillsborough Street, to the governor's mansion and then to Moore Square.
"I have kids, and this is my community," said Wanda Gilbert Coker, a community activist. "We're sick and tired, and in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, and we're sick and tired of being sick and tired."
Earlier Tuesday night, a Raleigh police officer shot a man, identified as Javier Torres, near North Rogers Lane in the eastern part of Raleigh.
Torres is at WakeMed hospital, police said. They did not release information about his status.
Raleigh police said a handgun was found at the scene of the shooting.
In a pre-dawn news conference on Wednesday, Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown blamed "reckless and false information that has been spread on social media" for inciting the protests. She said the body cameras worn by police will show those rumors were incorrect _ including a rampant Twitter rumor that the suspect was simply coming out of a pizza shop.
"You will see the individual does have a pizza box, but he also has a gun," she said.
The police chief said Torres was running directly at an officer with a gun. The officer shot one time and the bullet hit Torres in the abdomen, she said.
Police said they responded to a call about a man with a gun in the 1000 block of North Rogers Lane about 6:40 p.m., according to a news release sent by the department just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday. The caller said the man was "flashing" a gun near the Sheetz gas station and was accompanied by several other men, according to a recording of the 911 call released Wednesday morning by police.
The suspect ran when officers arrived, the police chief said at the press conference. Police chased after him and asked him several times to drop his gun, she said.
Shortly after the shooting, protesters started mobilizing.
A leader of the march was Rolanda Byrd. After her son, Akiel Denkins, was shot and killed by a Raleigh police officer in 2016, she began organizing for police oversight and police accountability.
"Thank you for the love that you have shown for the young man (shot) tonight," she said around 2 a.m. "That's why we are standing here tonight. Because they did that to my son four years ago. We are not going to stop."
Zainab Baloch, an activist who has run for Raleigh mayor, told The News & Observer that the group had protested outside the police chief's residence as well as Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin's home. Baldwin did not respond to a late-night text message.
"We need accountability, but we need power," Baloch said, referencing a newly created police advisory board that critics argue lacks teeth. "We need a community board with power. ... Everyone is tired."
Deck-Brown said she believes protesters crossed a line after coming to her home. "I understand the frustration but what happened tonight, last night, was wrong on a lot of levels," she said in response to a question at the press conference.
Long-time community activist Octavia Rainey, who was with Coker Tuesday night, asked why police have to shoot someone rather than use other de-escalation techniques.
"The shooting is unnecessary, and the police department needs to look at that policy," Rainey said. "And they can't justify it. They're shooting way too much now. It needs to be looked at by an outside entity now."
The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting, which is standard protocol for shootings with officers.
The officer who fired at Torres was wearing a body camera that was activated during the incident, according to police. Other officers' body cameras also were activated. Police officials said they will seek a court order to have the video released.
At the governor's mansion, protesters pulled down and burned the United States and North Carolina flags.
While many left around 2 a.m., some gathered for another hour in a tense stand-off with police near Moore Square. Many stood in the middle of Blount Street until officers warned they'd face arrest if they didn't move to the sidewalk.
Some people played music, danced and joked about keeping people awake in nearby apartments. A woman ran to the nearby McDonald's and bought fries and chicken nuggets for the crowd. At the same time, people screamed and yelled about their interactions with Raleigh police, their voices breaking with emotion.
One woman, who would not provide her full name, laid down flat in the street, holding a sign over her head. The sign said "No Justice No Peace" on one side and "Justice for Soheil" on the other.
She said she was a friend of Soheil Antonio Mojarrad, a man who was fatally shot by a Raleigh police officer in April 2019 in the same shopping center as Tuesday night's shooting. The police officer's body camera was not activated at the time of Mojarred's shooting, prompting a change in the city's policy about when the cameras should be on.
At the press conference on Wednesday morning, Police Chief Deck-Brown asked the public "not to rush to judgment. ... We ask that you allow this investigation to take its course."
While she said she respected the right to protest, she added, "We ask the protesters to please conduct themselves within the boundaries of the law."
"This is not who we are as a city," Deck-Brown said of the damage caused by protesters overnight. "But it is also important that individuals who have a desire to voice their concerns. There is a method by which they can do that. Without damaging other people's property. Without harming other folks. We saw that last night and early this morning.
The Raleigh Police Community Accountability Task force (Raleigh PACT) was created shortly after the 2016 killing of Denkins. Its members have continued to advocate for more police oversight. Members and leaders in PACT have spoken at city council meeting asking for a police oversight board with subpoena power for years.
Those efforts resulted in a series of community events and occasional protesters disrupting Raleigh City Council meetings.
On Feb. 4, the council voted to create a police advisory board that would review the police department's policies and procedures, but wouldn't have investigative powers.
At the time, city leaders called it a "first step" but that it would make everyone happy. Applications for that seven-person board are now open.
