Family, friends and people from the surrounding communities held a memorial for Estavon in the woods where he was killed on Dec. 19. Subsequently, protests were held in Mountain Iron and Virginia later in the month, demanding answers for why Estavon had been killed.
The state authorities conducted an investigation and announced their decision in February. As typically happens when the authorities investigate themselves, they concluded that the officers would not be held liable for the killing of Estavon. Instead they supported the officers claims that they had feared for their lives. The reasons for this supposed fear revolved around two things. Once is a claim by the police that during the chase they were radioed that Estavon matched the description of a possible shooter from an incident in a different community the day before. And the second is a hard to believe story that Estavon pulled his hand out of his pocket and aimed his hand like a gun at the cops. However this has failed to satisfy many people because the basic facts remain that police fired multiple times at a 125 pound 19 year old in the woods, who was unarmed, was being held at bay by a police dog, and who had already been tasered.
Activists are planning another protest, this time at the County Courthouse in Duluth, to keep the issue alive and continue to demand justice for Estavon. The protest will take place on Monday, April 12 at 8am. We urge everyone to attend.
>> The article above was written by Adam Ritscher.
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