Thread by @UR_Ninja

NEW: Family of AJ Stewart Speak on Patterns of White Supremacy that led to his Killing Over a Parking Spot 🧵

With Brian Kjellberg's murder trial slated for March 27, Stewart's cousin is speaking out about the racial dynamics of the 2021 St. Paul murder: unicornriot.ninja/2023/family-of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Unicorn Riot recently sat down with the Poet Laureate of San Francisco & cousin of AJ Stewart, @_Tongogara_ (Tongo Eisen-Martin) for an exclusive interview about the racial politics of Stewart’s murder, Brian Kjellberg’s upcoming trial in MN & more. unicornriot.ninja/2023/family-of…

“I think it begins with this white guy sharpening a metal pipe into a shank, wrapping it with a black tape handle & ideating about murdering someone Black,” @_Tongogara_ said of Brian Kjellberg, a white military veteran who killed his unarmed cousin AJ Stewart in Dec. 2021.

On the evening of Dec. 2, 2021, Brian Kjellberg called the non-emergency number seeking to get a car ticketed & impounded for being parked on his property on the 1700 block of 7th street on Saint Paul’s eastside. ↕️

Brian Kjellberg, a white man, brought a weapon with him to confront the driver and prevent the car from leaving until the tow truck arrived. The driver, AJ Stewart, a Black man, was visiting friends and family who lived on the same block as Kjellberg. ↕️

When Stewart went outside to leave, Kjellberg escalated the situation and physically prevented Stewart from getting in his car. Stewart gave Kjellberg verbal commands to move but Kjellberg refused. This is when Kjellberg alleges that Stewart punched him in the face. Kjellberg… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Stewart’s family disputes Kjellberg’s claim that AJ punched him before he was fatally stabbed. They described the 27 y/o as “goofy” & said “he enjoyed...promoting positivity to teenagers in his free time,” which contradicts the violent behavior alleged by Kjellberg. ↕️

For killing unarmed AJ Stewart, Brian Kjellberg was charged with 2nd degree murder without intent while committing a felony, MN Statute: 609.19.2(1). If he’s found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

The murder trial for Kjellberg is scheduled to start March 27, 2023. ↕️

Brian Kjellberg is claiming self-defense & has defense attorney Earl Gray who's defended cops in high profile murder cases: Kim Potter who killed #DaunteWright, Jeronimo Yanez who killed #PhilandoCastile, & Thomas Lane who was an accomplice in the killing of #GeorgeFloyd. ↕️

AJ Stewart’s family has taken note of Early Gray defending Brian Kjellberg. Eisen-Martin told UR that: “[He’s] the same lawyer…who represented these killer cops...It’s a plain statement of where he stands and the confidence in the white supremacist nature of the system.” ↕️

Tongo Eisen-Martin, AJ Stewart's cousin, said he was hoping to have supporters & legal observers show up to the Ramsey County Courthouse on Brian Kjellberg's trial dates, which start on March 27, 2023 & help with court watch to monitor the proceedings to ensure transparency. ↕️

*Earl* Gray

AJ Stewart's cousin Tongo said that the family wasn't presenting a demand on the system, it was rather demanding the people see Stewart's killing as an "alarm" within our "society of social contradiction" and that he's hoping for unity in the end. ↕️

unicornriot.ninja/2023/family-of…

The family of AJ Stewart has created the Facebook page Justice for AJ to communicate with supporters and give updates on the case. ↕️facebook.com/profile.php?id…

Eisen-Martin described his cousin AJ as the rock of his family. He said AJ was his “mother’s strength” and was like a father figure to his little brothers and sisters. ↕️

unicornriot.ninja/2023/family-of…

Tabitha Lewis, the mother of AJ Stewart, has struggled to keep stable housing and employment since her son’s murder. The family has created a fundraiser on GoFundMe for supporters who would like to contribute. ↕️ gofundme.com/f/please-help-…

AJ Stewart's killing was just one in a string of anti-Black racially-motivated acts of violence perpetrated by white men in the U.S., said @_Tongogara_, who noted the murder came in a time of the mass shooting in Buffalo, the killing of #AhmaudArbery & the deadly Jan. 6 riots.↕️

“Just as much as religion is an opiate, you have the opiate of this white supremacist ideology – high off of that, you have at least 70 million white people that will live under any condition.” Tongo Eisen-Martin, cousin of victim Arnell 'AJ' Stewart ↕️

In December 2021, calling on Ramsey County Attorney John Choi to press hate crimes charges on Brian Kjellberg, family, friends and supporters of AJ Stewart held a press conference at the Indigenous Roots Cultural Center in Saint Paul. ↕️ unicornriot.ninja/2022/family-ca…

Supporters of AJ Stewart called Brian Kjellberg a white racist vigilante & the killing has drawn comparisons to George Zimmerman, who murdered unarmed #TrayvonMartin in 2012 & Greg & Travis McMichael, who murdered unarmed #AhmaudArbery in 2020. ↕️

Watch the full press conference from Dec. 30, 2021, featuring the mother and cousins of AJ Stewart, community organizers, and more. ↕️

Family of AJ Stewart Speak on Patterns of White Supremacy That Led to His Killing Over a Parking Spot

Full article from thread ⬆️ above:
unicornriot.ninja/2023/family-of…