RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES(Reuters) — A Raleigh, North Carolina, police officer on Monday (February 29) killed a man who was fleeing arrest, authorities said, and a local TV station reported that protesters chanting “black lives matter” gathered at the scene.
Raleigh police did not give the race of either the officer or the dead man. However, a black woman who identified herself as the victim’s mother told local television the officer was white and that her son was shot in the back as he ran away.
Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told reporters that the suspect was running from an officer who sought to arrest him for a drug offense.
He was shot near a convenience store just after 12pm and a gun was found near the body.
The deaths of African-Americans, many of them unarmed, at the hands of police over the past few years have sparked a debate around the United States and on the presidential campaign trail.
The Black Lives Matter movement sprang up following deaths in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere in the country.
A crowd gathered at the scene of the shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital, and chanted “black lives matter,” according to WTVD-TV in Raleigh.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s North Carolina chapter posted on Twitter that a vigil would be held for the victim.
Police did not release the name of the officer nor confirm the name of the man who was killed and have not released further details about the incident.
The woman who identified herself as the dead man’s mother, Rolanda Byrd, told local media that she had heard from “four or five people” that her son, Akiel Denkins, was “shot seven times by a white officer with a bald head.”
“He’s gone, I mean, he’s gone. Why? Because of the color of his skin?”, said demonstrator Brenda Ginger.
Police said the State Bureau of Investigation and the police department will investigate and send a report to the City Council within five business days.
“It is time for change. It is time for change. It is time for all of us to get together and say no to the injustice,” said Ginger.
The Raleigh City Council was scheduled on Monday to discuss whether to start requiring police officers to wear body cameras, but the issue was removed from the agenda after the shooting, the ACLU said.