Washington, D.C. – Around 50 activists and community members gathered on Monday, April 27 at Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) 4th District Precinct for a justice vigil held in honor of Issac Carlos Aguirre, a 19-year-old who was found hanging from a tree outside of the precinct two weeks before.
Hosted by the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR) and Movimiento Migrantes DC (MMDC), the vigil was the second action at the station to demand answers over Isaac Aguirre’s suspicious death, and was called to put more pressure on MPD after they refused to give answers to Aguirre’s family, who traveled over 36 hours to seek information.
The MPD 4th District is known by locals to be a hot spot of police terror in the community. It’s where Karon Hylton Brown, a 20-year-old Black man, was killed by MPD in 2020, and where the murderer of Lazarus Wilson, killer cop Jason Bagshaw, is currently stationed.
The vigil began by the tree where schoolchildren found Isaac’s body. Merawi Gerima, a member of DCAARPR, stated, “What we have organized today is a vigil to raise up the name Issac Aguirre. To honor him and to reclaim this ground back into the fold of the people who loved him most, rather than the police who in my opinion, violated him, his name, and his family.”
Gerima and the co-emcee read statements from Isaac’s father, friends and teachers who could not make it due to distance. His loved ones remembered him fondly and noted that he moved across the country from Arizona to Washington D.C. to start a new life.
The crowd then marched from the tree and around the perimeter of the police precinct building before stopping in front to continue the rest of the program in the streets, right in the middle of the busy Georgia Avenue during rush hour.
A community member spoke about her experience with 4th District cops a few blocks away, near Walmart. She said she was pulled over for using her phone while driving, and the police yanked her and her 15-year-old daughter out of the car. The cops then proceeded to beat her and her daughter so badly they had to go to the emergency room.
Gerima stated, “The same officers that neglected Isaac, the same ones who are covering up his death, are the same ones running up and down these streets brutalizing Black people,” while pointing at the police station behind them and yelling “shame.”
MPD officers, including killer cop Jason Bagshaw, watched from behind the glass windows of the building. Protesters chanted, “Indict, convict, send these killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”
An organizer from MMDC then spoke, “For nearly a year, we have seen MPD willingly collaborate with federal agents to kidnap our neighbors across the District. They have racially profiled and torn our families apart, so when a young Latino child is found hanging lifelessly from a tree next to a police station, of course we will ask questions and, of course, we will demand answers.”
They continued, “We are here to honor him, to remind each of us that we must lean onto each other, that we all have a responsibility to love and protect each other for a better world.” As the event ended, community members lit candles and left offerings at the tree in honor of Isaac.
Shortly after, organizers packed up their cars and, while driving past the front of the station, noticed that the vigil items were gone. Just a few blocks down the road, they saw a gang of police officers and federal agents pulling over a Black man for tinted windows. The organizers turned around and got out of their cars to begin filming and demanded the release of the young man.
Several other community members came out of their homes to confront the police over the wrongful arrest. Despite the community pressure and the young man asserting his rights, police cuffed him and took him away to another precinct. The organizers followed the police van to the station to continue offering support to the young man. He was released the next day with a citation. The organizers plan to attend his upcoming court date and reaffirmed their commitment to the struggle for community control of the police to get justice for the motorist, for Isaac Aguirre, and countless others who have been wronged by police in DC.
Follow @dcaarpr and @_movimientodc on Instagram for up-to-date information on Isaac’s case and the fight for community control.
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