Protesters Question Lethal Force in Unarmed Man's Shooting: Video

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DEARBORN, MI – About four dozen demonstrators and one counter-protester marched outside police headquarters Saturday demanding answers about the fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect by a Dearborn police officer during the noon hour Wednesday.

Kevin Matthews, 35, died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, ruled. Led by the Rev. David Alexander Bullock, national spokesman for the Change Agent Consortium, the demonstrators protested for about 90 minutes before five of the protesters met privately with five of the protesters.

Before the rally, Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad told the Detroit Free Press the shooting has been “tragic for the entire community.”

“I want to be clear about this — that by this entire community, I mean all of southeastern Michigan, including Dearborn and the Dearborn Police Department,” he said.”Secondly, it would be my hope that this incident does not divide our community in any way, but we continue to stand together until it’s resolved.”

Activists wanted to know why lethal force was used at all. Matthews was wanted wanted on a $2,500 misdemeanor warrant and had escaped from police custody earlier in the day Wednesday in connection with a larceny in Detroit. The Dearborn police officer, who hasn’t been named, was patrolling in Detroit when he spotted Matthews.

Matthews reportedly ran from the officer, then struggled with him. Haddad said in a statement last week that Matthews was shot after he tried to go for the officer’s gun.

“We’re saying we’re not going to accept the unjustified attack, assault and murder of human beings by any other human beings,” Teferi Brent, a member of the Detroit-based Change Agent Consortium, told the Free Press. “It is not acceptable, especially by those who we pay with taxpayers’ money to defend and protect and serve us.”

Among the protesters was 70-year-old Barbara Clay, of Mount Clemens, who carried a “Black Lives Matter” sign. Matthews is black, and the officer who shot him is white. Organizers have said there are similarities between Matthews’ shooting and the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.

“I want people to know that it’s just not black people who care,” Clay told the Free Press. “It’s just gotten worse and worse. It almost feels like an epidemic, the killing of unarmed black men.”

Vincent Authier, 51, of Dearborn told the Free Press he attended the rally to support law enforcement.

“When you argue with (police), when you’re resisting arrest, you’re putting your own life in danger,” Authier said. “Recognize that.”

Thomas Gray, who claimed to have witnessed the struggle between the police officer and Matthews told The Detroit News Matthews’ last words were “Stop it! Stop it!”

Gray reportedly told investigators he witnessed part of the scuffle, then the two went out of his line of sight. He said he heard the man plead with the officer, then five gunshots.

The officer’s uniform was reportedly torn, the equipment on his belt was in disarray and the officer sustained minor injuries that required treatment, the Free Press said.

Matthews reportedly suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was recovering from a broken arm sustained when he was hit by a car on Thanksgiving Day.

“Instead of wrapping presents with my baby, I have to bury my brother,” Matthews’ sister, Kimberly Matthews, 37, said during a news conference last week.

A larger rally is planned for Jan. 4.

Below, watch video posted on the Dearborn Area Community Members Facebook page.