On February 10, Emancipate NC joined with El Pueblo, Respuesta Rapida de Durham, and NC SPAN to host a peaceful march in memory of Daniel Turcios, and to hold police accountable for his murder.
The Indy Week covered the march:
Turcios did not need to die, his family and activists believe. Police have tried to justify the shooting by saying Turcios was potentially intoxicated and wielding a knife.
Now, more than a month after Turcios’s death, his family is still waiting for answers. Wake County district attorney Lorrin Freeman, who will be tasked with deciding whether to pursue criminal charges against the officers involved, says her decision won’t come soon. . . .
Kerwin Pittman, an advocate with Emancipate NC, had few words left to say about the killing.
“Daniel Turcios’s life mattered and it is time we address the elephant in the room, which is, if Daniel Turcios was white, we wouldn’t be here today,” Pittman said. “Disproportionately, Black and brown populations are murdered across the country at a higher rate than anybody else and what you are seeing is this unfold right here in the capital city of Raleigh, North Carolina.”
The wait has been agonizing for the family, and frustrating for community activists trying to keep public pressure on the case. They are skeptical of the judicial system’s capacity for justice: Freeman declined to charge Tapscott two years ago when he shot and killed Keith Collins, a Black man with a history of mental illness who ran when Tapscott started chasing him along Pleasant Valley Road. Tapscott shot Collins 11 times, seven after he had already collapsed to the ground.
Emancipate NC continues to mourn with the family of Daniel Turcios, and all families impacted by police violence, even as we fight for the living.