Aaron Sanderford Profile picture
🔥🥩 Grilling more than politicians | 💼 Politics @NE_Examiner | 📜 Past: KMTV, OWH, LJS | 🎓 Education: WKU, UK, UNL | Roots: 🇺🇸🇵🇷 | 🥎🎭

Jun 5, 2020, 15 tweets

People starting to gather for a 5 p.m. protest near North 24th Street and Camden Avenue in North #Omaha. Pictured is the mural painted to honor #JamesScurlock.

Capt. Mark Matuza of @OmahaPolice offers some words of support for the Scurlock family and says they’ll be here only if needed. He said he expects a peaceful protest and he spoke with the family to offer support.

Correction: This is a prayer vigil, not a protest.

Pictured are Riss Mitchell, 28, the oldest of 27 siblings of #JamesScurlock, and Antwon D’Mala Swolley, 25, Scurlock’s brother.

She says she is here to honor the memory of her brother and remind people that he was a good man, a father of a girl less than 1.

Mitchell says, “He was my brother, and he was a good one. He is not what people want to make him sound like. People make mistakes. But you can make mistakes and be a good person. He was defending those people.”

Swolley said he and local artist Hugo Zamarozo painted the mural together.

Eric Belvine, 32, of Omaha, who owns a local business, Ground Zero, said he felt he had to come tonight.

“We have too much injustice in this world. History has taught us wrong, to hate. But we are brothers, all of us. We shouldn’t hate me because of the color of my skin.”

Crowd is growing now near 24th and Camden. Lot of people holding candles for #JamesScurlock.

Jaide Goner, 20, came to the vigil out of respect for James, whom she knew. She said she, as a black woman, would consider him a brother even if she didn’t. “Too many men are dying.”

Swolley tells the crowd, “We love you Ju!” Then leads a moment of silence.

A little video of the scene at 24th and Camden.

Sorry it’s sideways. Will try to fix.

Vigil ends with a call for peace.

And here is that earlier video of the prayer vigil straightened.

Spoke again with Mitchell after the protests. She said she didn’t mean for things to go so short. She was just trying not to get too emotional.

“This is still my brother. My brother.”

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