'A protester shot my sister! A protester! You're so mad at the police that you're hurting everyone else!'
Image source: Twitter video screenshot
A 22-year-old woman was killed early Monday in an apparent random shooting as she was leaving a protest in Davenport, Iowa, the Associated Press reported — and the victim's sister recorded an angry, tear-filled video blaming protesters and saying one of them pulled the trigger.
"A protester shot my sister! A protester!" Jasmine Kelly yelled as she cried. "You're so mad at the police that you're hurting everyone else ... you guys killed my sister!"
Kelly emphasized several times that police didn't fire the gun but that "it was one of y'all."
"You walk around with guns ... you act and pretend to be tough, and you pretend to be something you're not, and you got my sister killed ... by your f***ing ignorance. I gotta bury my sister!"
She added, "This was the ignorance of every single one of y'all that decided to shoot into a f***ing crowd, and that bullet just happened to hit my sister!"
"My sister is gone because one of you, a protester, shot my sister!" Kelly said.
More from the outlet:
Police told the outlet that dozens of people gathered at a mall late Sunday and later fanned out across the city in vehicles, firing guns and damaging businesses. At one point, a police cruiser was ambushed with gunfire, and an officer was injured, the AP said.
"It's hard; she didn't deserve this," Kelly's mother, Sharon Kelly, told WQAD-TV.
Sharon Kelly got the call about her daughter from another daughter who was listening to police scanner traffic, the station said, adding that they knew Italia was out protesting, and that she sent her sister a video of her doing so — just 10 minutes before she was gunned down, her mother added.
"She was here trying to protest peacefully," Sharon Kelly in tears told WQAD. "These idiots just want to take it out of control and bring guns to a situation that don't need to be here. This needs to stop. It needs to stop now before another mother has to grieve like I do, and cry over her baby [being] gone. It's gotta stop."
Kelly added to the station: "We need to stop the racism in the city. We need to stop the black and white issue. That's why she was here, trying to get the message across, and it ended her life."
What are the details?
Italia Marie Kelly was the oldest of five siblings, the AP said, and her younger sister — 19-year-old Jasmine Kelly — recorded the video hours after the shooting."A protester shot my sister! A protester!" Jasmine Kelly yelled as she cried. "You're so mad at the police that you're hurting everyone else ... you guys killed my sister!"
Kelly emphasized several times that police didn't fire the gun but that "it was one of y'all."
"You walk around with guns ... you act and pretend to be tough, and you pretend to be something you're not, and you got my sister killed ... by your f***ing ignorance. I gotta bury my sister!"
She added, "This was the ignorance of every single one of y'all that decided to shoot into a f***ing crowd, and that bullet just happened to hit my sister!"
"My sister is gone because one of you, a protester, shot my sister!" Kelly said.
What's the background?
Police Chief Paul Sikorski told the AP that the fatal shootings of Kelly and another person elsewhere in the city are under investigation. The outlet added that a third person was injured in gunfire outside a jewelry store.More from the outlet:
Kelly joined a protest over the death of George Floyd after getting off work at a restaurant Sunday night, according to her aunt, Amy Hale of Atchison, Kansas. She lived nearby."She was always smiling, always laughing. That's why it's so sad that she was taken in such a violent way," Hale told the AP. "That is not Italia. She was the bright, bubbly, big personality in the room."
Kelly, who is biracial and went by the last name Impinto, and a friend were getting in a vehicle to leave around midnight because the protest outside a Walmart had turned unruly, Hale said.
That's when she was struck in the back by a bullet that went through her shoulder and chest, likely killing her instantly, Hale said. Attempts to resuscitate her were not successful, and Kelly was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death and that no arrests had been made. Her family called on any witnesses to come forward with information about the shooting and for an end to violence in the city.
Police told the outlet that dozens of people gathered at a mall late Sunday and later fanned out across the city in vehicles, firing guns and damaging businesses. At one point, a police cruiser was ambushed with gunfire, and an officer was injured, the AP said.
"It's hard; she didn't deserve this," Kelly's mother, Sharon Kelly, told WQAD-TV.
Sharon Kelly got the call about her daughter from another daughter who was listening to police scanner traffic, the station said, adding that they knew Italia was out protesting, and that she sent her sister a video of her doing so — just 10 minutes before she was gunned down, her mother added.
"She was here trying to protest peacefully," Sharon Kelly in tears told WQAD. "These idiots just want to take it out of control and bring guns to a situation that don't need to be here. This needs to stop. It needs to stop now before another mother has to grieve like I do, and cry over her baby [being] gone. It's gotta stop."
Kelly added to the station: "We need to stop the racism in the city. We need to stop the black and white issue. That's why she was here, trying to get the message across, and it ended her life."
No comments:
Post a Comment