FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2021
Contact: Black Lives Matter DC, press@dcblm.org
DC AUDITOR SAYS DC METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT (MPD) “SQUANDERED” OPPORTUNITY TO DE-ESCALATE YET JUSTIFIES THE MURDER OF 18-YEAR OLD DEON KAY
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On September 4, 2020, 18-year old Deon Kay was murdered in broad daylight by Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officer Alexander Alvarez in Southeast Washington, DC. These MPD officers knew Deon. Some of the officers’ targeted harassment and brutality was shared with Black Lives Matter DC Core Organizer April Goggans by a family member the prior year. MPD stalked Deon’s Instagram, pulled up with their guns out, chased this child, creating the conditions to murder him, and shot him dead. But according to the new DC Auditor’s report, his murder was “justified.” There is no justification for the murder of Deon Kay. There is nothing justified about killing a Black child.
“The Metropolitan Police Department and the Use of Deadly Force: The Deon Kay Case” report issued today explains in so many ways how MPD “acted recklessly” and “squandered any opportunity to de-escalate” before deciding to kill another Black teenager in D.C., contradicting MPD’s own report. The DC Auditor’s office went out of its way to hold MPD’s hand during the investigation and MPD officials still resisted, even over whether a web camera would be pointed during an interview of an officer. Deon Kay should still be alive today getting a hug from his mother and loved ones. Instead, his mother is forced to sue the district for video footage of her son’s murder. An entire community is still hurting and in pain from the execution of a vessel of Black love who matters to us.
The state inherently sanctions police to be the judges, juries and executioners of Black life in America. On the one-year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, and just a day after the killing of Vedo Hall in Southeast D.C., we are reminded that police have never, and will not keep us safe. It is clear that reform does not work and we cannot afford to continue investing in people and efforts that only make officials appear to be “progressive” but were never meant to succeed. We must do the work necessary to build a world free of police and prisons. We must answer the call to divest from this racist system and the institutions that support it and invest in Black, indigenous, and people of color.
Black Lives Matter DC is a member based abolitionist organization centering Black people most at risk for state violence in DC, creating the conditions for Black Liberation through the abolition of systems and institutions of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.
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