Friends and relatives of Jesus Huerta don’t want Durham’s police chief issuing statements about broken windows or speculating about anarchists.
They want Jose Lopez Sr. instead to divulge more about what happened in the back of Officer Samuel Duncan's patrol car last week, says Alex Charns, an attorney who represents the Huerta family.
"The Huerta family wants the truth, a verifiable and fully disclosed truth, not the whitewash that in the past sometimes started and ended at police headquarters," Charns wrote in a statement issued on the family's behalf.
Huerta, a 17-year-old Riverside High School student, died last week after Lopez said a loud noise startled Duncan in the parking lot outside police headquarters.
Although an autopsy has been completed by the state medical examiner's office, the report on cause of death had not been released as of Wednesday. The police chief hasn't shared the apparent cause of death, either, although he has asserted that Huerta didn't die by a gun fired by a Durham police officer. It's also not yet publicly known whether Duncan had frisked and cuffed Huerta according to department policy or if Huerta had a weapon.
"Shouldn't being handcuffed (behind the back as DPD policy requires) after being frisked for weapons (DPD policy) and sitting in the back seat of a police car be one of the safest places in the Bull City?" Charns asked. "Instead of a quiet family Thanksgiving for the Huerta family, they are left to grieve the unexplained death of their son, their brother, their nephew, and wonder how such a tragedy is even possible."
On Friday, about 200 people marched from CCB Plaza in downtown Durham to police headquarters on West Chapel Hill Street, protesting Huerta's death as well as concerns about the department's motorist-profiling methods. Two people were arrested after someone smashed windows and damaged a patrol car.
On Tuesday, Lopez issued a statement blaming the unruly conduct on anarchists bent on causing trouble.
Rafael Estrada, who identified himself as an organizer of the March for Justice, as it was called, posted on Facebook on Monday: "Regardless of who broke the windows, to linger on that event is to miss the point of the demonstration and reduce all our actions to that small moment. The windows will be replaced, but Chuy's (nickname for Huerta) life can't be brought back."
Charns agreed that Lopez missed the point.
"The DPD is filled with loyal, courageous and truth-seeking officers and employees, folks who risk their lives every day for us," Charns said. "Honor them and Jesus Huerta, by focusing on the real issue, the only issue: How did this happen?"
Lopez has passed the case on to the department's professional standards division and the State Bureau of Investigation. Charns urged in his statement that the city manager designate any internal report on the incident be released "in order to restore public integrity."
Handcuffed Latino teen shot dead: Family wants answers about his death | Latino Times
____________________