Dallas residents turned out Sunday evening to march in support of Santos Rodriguez, a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer 50 years ago.
The march started and ended in Pike Park near downtown Dallas.
"Santos Rodriguez was a 12-year-old boy that was rousted from his bed at 2 in the morning, handcuffed, thrown into a squad car, driven a few blocks from his house...very close to where we are standing," said Hadi Jawad, a community leader who’s helped organized events marking Rodriguez' death. "And in a game of Russian roulette, an officer seeking to get a confession out of him ... murdered him."
Jawad said there are still deep wounds to the Latino community that lived in the area then known as Little Mexico.
"We have come a long way," he said. "But Dallas still has a long, long way to go."
Sunday's commemoration included the march, a religious ceremony and performances by ceremonial dancers. Joaquin Zihuatanejo, Dallas' poet laureate, prepared a special poem for the occasion. Community leaders and activists shared their thoughts about the legacy of the shooting.
Educator and activist Jose Villarreal said his feelings on Sunday included sadness "and a feeling of anger, because we know that if we don't get out in the street and protest, these killings of innocent, unarmed men will continue."
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Yfat Yossifor is a visual journalist joining KERA’s audience team. Yfat previously worked in Fort Worth as well as newsrooms in Michigan and Arizona. When Yfat is not out on assignment, she is out hiking enjoying nature or playing with her rescue dog.