LA remembers Floyd and others killed by police

LA remembers Floyd and others killed by police

From California to Texas, people remembered recent victims. Botham Jean's sister said each new killing is a trauma, and protests show it is time for change.

Caroline Malone reports

A memorial service was held in Los Angeles on Monday (June 8) to remember victims of police killings.

"Not only did they shoot my baby 7 times, they ran him over." There were four empty coffins to represent recent high profile cases of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Ryan Charles Twyman.

The sister of another victim Botham Jean, killed in 2018, attended a memorial in Texas.

Alissa Findley said the momentum in protests this time is different, but the trauma she feels is the same.

"Every time another event, another killing happens, it's trauma.

It brings me back to receiving that call from the hospital, letting me know that Botham has passed." Henry "Kiki" Watson was part the 'LA Four' who served time for badly beating white truck driver Reginald Denny.

That was during the LA Riots in 1992, after four cops were acquitted of beating black motorist Rodney King.

"People, I just want to say, can we all get along?

Can we get along?" Watson says he is still angry, and doesn't think anything has fundamentally changed.

"...Okay, first of all, you see the make up of the protesters out there, right?

It's a bunch of white kids, right, so that is why they haven't just released the dogs or started shooting, you know, just killing people...Now, if it was a bunch of black kids out there, they would have been started shooting and killing and everything." People have been protesting the recent police killings nationwide for 14 days.

"I feel safer of right now, but I don't know how long this will last." They continue to call for justice for those killed, and zero tolerance when excessive force is used by police.