In the wake of Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke's historic guilty verdict, another Chicago mother is fighting for justice for her son who lost his life to police violence.
As The New York Times reports, officer Brandon R. Ternand opened fire on 15-year-old Dakota Bright on a November afternoon in 2012, striking the teen in the back of the head.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Police Board decided Thursday to allow officer Ternand to keep his job. In a 5-3 vote, the board ruled Ternand's claim that he feared for his life and fired only after Bright turned toward him reaching for what the officer believed was a gun to be “credible and persuasive.”
A gun wasn't found on or near Dakota's body. Police later claimed they found a gun near an alley where officers first spotted the teen. It isn't clear whether that gun belonged to the boy. It also isn't clear how Bright was shot in the back of the head if he was turning to face Ternand in the seconds before his death.
In June 2016, Dakota's family brought a lawsuit against the city, which resulted in a $925,000 settlement. Now, Dakota's mother, Panzy Edwards, is fighting to get the police board's decision overturned.
Less than 24 hours after hearing the 34-year-old officer would remain on the force, Edwards said she "just broke down. I started crying."
“With no countervailing evidence, the logical conclusion is the obvious one: If someone is shot in the back of the head, his head was facing away from the person who shot him,” wrote the board members who were against the decision. Supporting their conclusions, the Independent Police Review Authority also deemed Ternand's actions to be "unprovoked and unwarranted."
“It was wrong and unjustified,” Edwards said. “Even with all the evidence, they still let that man go back to work, and they cleared him of any wrongdoing.”
Now, check these out:
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