{"id":1862,"date":"2016-09-13T01:49:05","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T05:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2017-11-26T19:22:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T00:22:06","slug":"boston-police-killing-protested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2016\/09\/13\/boston-police-killing-protested\/","title":{"rendered":"‘My Son’: A Killing by Police Protested at Boston Police Headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the video, projected on a building across from Boston Police Headquarters tonight, Carla Sheffield stood six-stories tall, holding a photo of her dead son, and crying. Burrell Ramsey-White was 26 years old when he was shot dead by Boston Police Officer Mathew Pieroway on Aug. 21, 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just paying homage to black people in Boston, lives lost at the hands of Boston police. It\u2019s never necessary,\u201d said one of the members of Boston Coalition for Police Accountability<\/a>. The group led the protest action around 9:30 tonight with We Are Watching<\/a> (which does protest projections). A dozen people took part. Members of both groups asked to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

\"Carla<\/a>
Carla Sheffield wipes away tears while watching the giant video projection of herself holding a photo of her dead son. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shooting of Ramsey-White was investigated by Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, who wrote in a 2013 report<\/a> that Sheffield\u2019s son was driving when he was stopped by two plain-clothes officers in an unmarked car, spoke to them briefly, but allegedly drove off when they ordered him out of the vehicle. The officers chased him at first in their car, and then when he allegedly got out of the car and ran away, they followed him on foot, eventually to 5 Yarmouth Place. There, Conley wrote, Pieroway shot Ramsey-White. Police allege that Ramsey-White had drawn a gun and pointed it at Pieroway.<\/p>\n

\u201cPieroway acted reasonably and lawfully in self-defense,\u201d Conley wrote in 2013. \u201cAccordingly, I conclude criminal charges [against the officer] are not warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheffield declined to comment last night, citing a pending lawsuit against the city. But speaking at a 2014 public meeting <\/a>about\u00a0police use of force, she said, “My son stood with his hands in the air, nine people looking at him, as he\u2014an 8-year-old girl heard my son saying, ‘No! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’ The police officer shot my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0<\/strong>Carla Sheffield spoke about the killing of her son in this 2015 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photos here copyright Greg Cook.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>
Members of the Boston Coalition for Police Accountability and We Are Watching roll video gear across Tremont Street as they prepare to project the protest video. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"In<\/a>
In the video, Carla Sheffield wipes away tears. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Carla<\/a>
Carla Sheffield (right) records the giant video projection. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Around<\/a>
Around 9:45 p.m., as the protesters were readying to depart, a Northeastern University police officer walked up and asked what they were up to. But they all parted amicably. It was the only apparent law enforcement response during the protest. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the video, projected on a building across from Boston Police Headquarters tonight, Carla Sheffield stood six-stories tall, holding a photo of her dead son, and crying. Burrell Ramsey-White was 26 years old when he was shot dead by Boston Police Officer Mathew Pieroway on Aug. 21, 2012. \u201cWe\u2019re just paying homage to black people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,108,1],"tags":[37,14,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1878,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/1878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}