Protestants marched through a city in Louisiana, holding signs and occasionally stopping traffic in response to the fatal police raids of a Black man that increased tensions between community activists and local leaders.
The march was followed by an event at Lafayette City Hall where Protestants demanded racial justice in the death of Trayford Pellerin, who was shot and killed Friday night. The event called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, a day after protests ended with fires set on a median of the highway and police cordoned off the audience with smoke extinguishers.
“No riots, no burning buildings, no damage to cars, no attacks on people,” said community activist Jamal Taylor during the rally that was livestreamed on his Facebook page. He said Pellerin’s mother, Michelle Pellerin, told him she wanted to honor her son’s memory with peaceful protests.
Marja Broussard, center, president of the NAACP’s Lafayette chapter, walks down Evangline Thruway with others and demands justice for Trayford Pellerin on Saturday in Lafayette, La.
(Brad Kemp / The Advocate via AP)
The video showed what 100 to 200 people showed up at the event. Several people then took part in the following march, and images showed that at least one person was detained. It was unclear whether any arrests were made. Protesters marched at the gas station where Pellerin was shot.
Pellerin’s aunt and grandmother said they happened to be at the shooting range on Friday night because they were driving home from day one.
Choicey Pellerin, Trayford Pellerin’s aunt, said she and her mother saw a lot of blue lights and police. Just as her mother said there must have been a bad wreck, her mother called her phone.
“It was her brother on the phone, and said her grandfather had just been shot,” Choicey Pellerin said Sunday during an Associated Press interview. She said her 31-year-old cousin had called twice that day, saying, “Grandma, I love you.”
Police said Pellerin was carrying a knife and was shot when he tried to enter one convenience store in Lafayette after causing a disturbance at another.
“We understand it was a call to tremble,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family with Baton Rouge attorney Ron Haley.
Protesters march claiming right in front of Trayford Pellerin on Saturday in Lafayette, La.
(Brad Kemp / The Advocate via AP)
Crump and Haley, who accompanied Trayford Pellerin’s aunt and uncle in the conference conference interview, said that less than three weeks earlier, Lafayette police had just arrested a white man who had a knife and a car chase had left. Police said Donald Guidry, 42, of Rayne, had told officers he was armed and could possibly injure himself, but was spoken to in surrender without incident, according to several news reports.
“There are two justice systems in America. One for Black Americans and one for white Americans,” Crump said. “Until we address this, we will see more hashtags” about Black people being killed by police, he said.
The bullet holes near the place where Pellerin was killed believe police statements they are trying to protect people inside, Haley said.
“The site of that store is full of bullets,” shows “messy disregard for the safety of the people in the store,” he said.
The sound of the shots and remarks of young women watching the shooting were captured on video. The state ACLU condemned what it described as a “horrific and deadly incident of police violence against a Black person.” Both the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center soon called for an investigation.
Over the weekend, local activists criticized how authorities responded to Pellerin’s sudden death and the protests that followed. Taylor, who spoke at Sunday’s rally at City Hall, accused outside agitators of the violence that erupted Saturday. He told the AP he did not recognize people seen in videos setting fires.
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Late Saturday, local activists attended a news conference held by officials but were “guided” because Mayor Lafayette Josh Guillory said it was private, Lafayette NAACP President Marja Broussard said.
Taylor said an earlier decision to close parks and recreation centers – most of them in Black Weeks – and a statement by Guillory about Pellerin’s death indicated “a person disconnected from the fate of the Black man, from the person of color who fights to be equal and value his life the same as the life of a white person is valued, “he said.
A memorial service on the ground at a Shell station Saturday in Lafayette, La., For 31-year-old Trayford Pellerin.
(Brad Kemp / The Advocate via AP)
The activists also expressed their dissatisfaction that officials did not bring condolences to the Pellerin family at the news conference.
“Josh Guillory is lower than a dog for that,” Taylor said Saturday.
Tensions surrounding the fatal shooting follow a worldwide outcry over police tactics and racial injustice stemming from the death of George Floyd on May 25 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.
The family believes Pellerin may have had a mental health crisis, Crump said.
Michelle Pellerin said her son had told her in March that he was seeking therapy for social anxiety so seriously that it could no longer keep him out of work.
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Lafayette police asked state police to investigate – standard procedure in the state for shooting by local officers.
The incident was the third shooting by Lafayette police since mid-July. State police said a man was critically injured last month after he was shot during an altercation with police. Another man was in stable condition after he was shot during a burglary investigation earlier this month.
