Trayvon Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) On the night of February 26, 2012, George Zimmerman, the self-proclaimed neighborhood watch coordinator for the Retreat at Twin Lakes where Trayvon Martin was living, profiled, followed, confronted, aimed a gun at, and pulled the trigger shooting a bullet into unarmed Trayvon’s Martin’s torso creating an entry wound 1 inch to the left of the midline and 1/2 inch below the left nipple with the trajectory of the bullet going straight through from front to back without deviating up or down or left or right.
Jordan Russell Davis (February 16 2014 November 23, 2012)At a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, Jordan Russell Davis, a 17-year-old African American high school student, was fatally shot by Michael David Dunn, a 45-year-old software developer from Brevard County who was visiting the city for a wedding. The incident began when Dunn asked Davis and his companions to turn down the loud music in their vehicle in which Davis was a passenger. Dunn was convicted on three counts of attempted second-degree murder for firing at three other teenagers who were with Davis and one count of firing into a vehicle. None of the other teenagers were injured. Dunn was found guilty of 1st Degree Murder for Jordan.
Ezell Ford 25 (mentally challenged) Aug. 11, 2014 Los Angeles, CA Veteran Police conducting an “investigative stop”. (nothing is known about why the officers stopped Ford). Per witness’s Ford was unarmed and being compliant with the officers, lying on the ground when three bullets were unloaded into him by the police. Members of Ford’s community and family say that it was well known, even by police officers, that Ford was mentally ill. Police demanded Ezell lie.
John Crawford lll July 29. 1992 – Aug. 5, 2014) John Crawford Jr. would regularly make the 400-mile drive from his home in Jackson, Tennessee, to Fairfield, Ohio, to see his son, John Crawford III. Sometimes they would plan a week in advance to meet up. Sometimes Crawford would call his son along the way. On Aug. 5, he decided to surprise him. He got in his car and made the trek to the home of Tressa Sherrod, John’s mother.
Jessica Hernandez 17-year old Jessica Hernandez was killed on January 26, 2015 in Denver, Colorado. Authorities said Jessica was in a stolen vehicle and tried running over one of the officers, striking him on the leg, which led to that and another officer firing their guns.
Michael Brown (May 20, 1996 – August 9, 2014) was the son of Lesley McSpadden and Mike Brown Sr.Brown graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis eight days before his death, completing an alternative education program. His teachers said he was “a student who loomed large and didn’t cause trouble”, referring to him as a “gentle giant”.At the time of his death, he was 6’4″ tall and weighed 292 lb. He was an amateur rapper and posted tracks online under the name Big’Mike. Brown was to have started attending Vatterott College, a technical school, on August 11, 2014 with plans to become a heating and cooling engineer.
Kelly Thomas (April 5, 1974 – July 10,2011) Born April 5, 1974, to Ron Thomas, a former Orange County Sheriff’s deputy, and Cathy Thomas. Thomas, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was a “fixture” among Fullerton’s homeless population.
Eric Garner (September 15, 1970 – July 17, 2014) Garner had been employed as a horticulturist at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Garner was a 350-pound (160 kg), 43-year-old, 6’3″ asthmatic African American man. He has been described by his friends as a “neighborhood peacemaker” and as a generous, congenial person. He had six children. Garner had been previously arrested and was out on bail for selling untaxed cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession and false impersonation.
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) Emmett was an African-American teenager who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till’s great-uncle’s house. They took Till away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till’s body was discovered and retrieved from the river.
George Junius Stinney Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) George was, at age 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. Stinney was arrested on suspicion of murdering two girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8, in Alcolu, located in Clarendon County, South Carolina, on March 23, 1944. No witnesses were called for the defense. The trial lasted two and a half hours. The jury took ten minutes to deliberate before it returned with a ‘guilty’ verdict.
Let Our Voices Echo 