Peaceful March Held In Salinas Following Week Of Unrest After Police Shootings
SALINAS (CBS SF) -- After a week of unrest following a deadly officer-involved shooting, a peaceful protest was held in Salinas Sunday.
Protesters marched Sunday to send a positive message of peace after a tense and violent week in East Salinas.
"This has become the norm, for people to get shot and killed and not even make it through the justice system. They're being tried by the police department on the street," protester Margaret Bonetti told KPIX 5.
The protests began after officers shot and killed a man allegedly swinging a pair of garden shears toward them on a busy Salinas street corner Tuesday afternoon in an incident that was recorded by one of dozens of witnesses and posted on YouTube.
That man, identified as 44-year-old Carlos Mejia, was allegedly trying to break into a home and was threatening to kill the residents inside, police said.
Along the three-mile route, protesters made stops at the site of officer-involved shootings. There have been three in Salinas since March.