‘We will not back down’: KC candlelight vigil honors those killed by police officers

Those attending a candlelight vigil held Sunday night in remembrance of a recent number of Black people killed by police couldn’t help but see their deaths as a reminder that they could be next.

“We see ourselves in these victims of police violence,” said 21-year-old Brandon Henderson of Kansas City. “I don’t know if every white person sees it that way.”

It’s like two different worlds, Henderson said during the vigil at the Swope Park bandstand in Kansas City.

“For me, every time I see it, it’s a reminder that like I could be next,” he said.

Dozens of people were in attendance for the the vigil in honor of Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and Dominque Lucious as well as those killed by police in Kansas City.

On April 8, Lucious, a 26-year-old transgender woman, was shot and killed at a Springfield apartment by a man she met on an online dating site. A few days later on April 11 a police officer fatally shot 20-year-old Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, during a traffic stop, miles away from where Derek Chauvin is on trial for the death of George Floyd. Wright’s death sparked a wave of protests. That was followed by the release of body cam footage after a Chicago police officer shot 13-year-old Toledo on March 29 during a foot chase.

“We wanted to give the community a space to mourn and grieve in the light of the events that have been happening,” said Amaia Cook, a community organizer with Kansas City’s Black Rainbow, an organization dedicated to the liberation of all oppressed people.

“So we wanted to bring awareness to the national coverage that’s been surrounding Daunte Wright along with bring awareness to some of the events in Kansas City that haven’t been getting as much coverage or that have been but kind of level down.”

Black Rainbow sees the vigil as just as important as a protest because it honors people’s lives and allows people to come together and grieve, Cook said. She added that she hopes people understand that they are there for them.

“We as an organization just want our community that we stand with them and we want to show them our support in whatever way that looks — if that’s a vigil, or if that’s a protest or a community program event,” she said. “We want to respect all Black lives, those that have been murdered but also those that are existing in the community now.”

Rev. Vernon Percy Howard Jr., the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, said he was honored to stand with Black Rainbow and other like-minded organizations who “refuse to allow the brutality of Black and brown people in Kansas City to go unaccounted for, to go ignored.”

Evoking the name of Ryan Stokes — who was shot and killed by Kansas City police in 2013 at the conclusion of a foot chase near the Power & Light District about 3 a.m. — Howard said there was no justice for him.

“This is why we will not shut up,” Howard said. “And we will not back down.”

Twenty-year-old Richaad Winn of Kansas City said he walked home in tears with his head in his hands when he found out that Wright had been shot and killed by police.

In Wright, Winn saw someone that looked like him, talked like him and dressed like him. He called for everyone to have more empathy.

“We just want to be accepted by somebody,” Winn said. “I want to be seen and I want to be heard.”