“We’re often saddened and disappointed at the slow process towards finding justice in police involved killings like the one that sadly brings us here today in the case of Darrius Stewart”, President of the NAACP Memphis branch Keith Norman said.
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The Memphis Commercial Appealreports 19-year-old Darrius Stewart was shot and killed during what police are calling a struggle between the teen and an officer following a traffic stop at 5799 Winchester shortly before midnight. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad auto without handcuffs as the officer checked on two active warrants for Stewart from Iowa and Illinois, police said. They did not answer questions, but Armstrong did mention in his statement the deaths of black men during altercations with police officers in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri. “There were two officers on the scene”, said Mary Stewart, his mother.
Stewart went to Regional Medical Center in critical condition where he later died. “Words can’t express how I feel”, she told WMC.
“If my son, like they say, attacked this officer, why did he not use a taser?”
Several police officers were present. “They told him he could leave because he wasn’t the one they were looking for, but to be safe because there is someone out there with the same name and a lot of warrants”, she said. Memphis police would not answer reporters’ questions about warrants involving Stewart, nor could they say for certain if the warrants were even for the slain teen.
Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said Monday morning that officers were working to confirm that the warrants actually belonged to Stewart.
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The news conference began with Gwyn giving his condolences to Stewart’s family, saying he realized how hard this time was for them and the entire community. “Police are supposed to serve and protect, yet society fears”.
