Heartache and frustration was felt in every message shared Monday night at a public town hall meeting hosted by the Racine Mayor Corey Mason.
The meeting was organized in response to the shooting of Donte Shannon by Racine Police last week.
“I saw his body,” one speaker said. “No one should have to see something like that. I’m scared for my kids. Black people in this community are scared. When is this going to stop?”
According to Racine Police, Shannon got out and ran after they pulled him over for missing a license plate. The officers say he pulled out a gun, and they shot him in self-defense.
Shannon’s family, and the community, want proof. They say they don’t trust there will be a fair investigation. The Department of Justice is handling the review of what happened.
“Do you see the anger and hurt of people in your city?” one man asked the mayor. “To us, it seems like you’re only serving one kind of people. Not us.”
Because it is an open investigation, Mason and city aldermen did not say much, and that angered the crowd.
“You want answers to those questions, and so do I,” Mason said to the crowd. “I am here to listen to your questions and concerns and try to get answers to make our city better. The shooting is under investigation. We have to let the Department of Justice do its job. I can’t imagine the pain, sadness and loss, the Shannon family must feel.”
At the meeting, Shannon’s five-year-old daughter sat in the front row, in the arms of her grandma.
“When she wakes up in the middle of the night, and says she wants my daddy, none of you are there,” said Shannon's dad, Nakia Shannon, to city city leaders. “I’m there. Her grandma is there. Her mom and aunties are there. She is going to suffer. Her father is never coming back. Do you think that’s fair to her?”
A funeral will be held for Shannon this Friday.
