Group renews call for justice in police shooting of Hartford man
There is a renewed call for justice for a Hartford man who was shot and killed by police back in February.
Political activists held a vigil to bring attention to his case at Bushnell Park Sunday evening.
“If people forget about these cases, these incredible cases of police brutality, where people die in their own home, people who just need help, nothing happens,” Frankie D with Dare to Struggle CT said.
Dare to Struggle CT invited people to remember Everard Walker.
Back in February, a family member called 211 saying Walker was having an acute mental health crisis.
Two mental health workers from the Capitol Region Center responded and they requested police come with them to Walker’s apartment.
They tried to talk to him but things escalated to a scuffle and police said Walker lifted a knife. That’s when an officer fired his gun.
Walker’s family did not attend the vigil but the organization says they want the officer who shot their father to be arrested.
A preliminary status report from the inspector general’s office said Walker had a knife before the scuffle and officers told him to drop it, but he didn’t.
That office investigates police shootings, and they are still looking into whether the shooting was justified.
While the group was small in numbers, their efforts are far reaching. Valerie Jaddo came from Stamford and said her son was having a mental health crisis when he died in police custody in 2019.
“We just need to come together and build this massive movement of getting all of us together who our loved one has been violently killed by police, and we must end police brutality,” she said.
She’s been pushing for justice for seven years and now joins Walker’s family in doing the same.
“We need accountability,” she said. “We need transparency and we call for justice for one and all. And I’m willing to stand up and fight. Fight with every family who is being affected by this.”
At the time of the shooting, the Hartford police union said they are waiting for the results of the inspector general’s investigation.
There is no mandated timeline for when that report must be released.
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