By: Thurgood Moses
 
Last Tuesday, a police officer shot and killed Antwon Rose Jr., a Woodland Hills high schools student. The officer stopped his friend’s vehicle. Then he ran away from the police, then the officer fatally shot him. It is very sad and terrible what happened to him and we are all praying for him, his family and his friends.

Q: How do you feel about the overall situation?

(I1) Andrea Hawkins: “It was just wrong, what that officer did to that boy, it was just awful.”

(I1) Aaron Hawkins: “Like she said, it was terrible. I was listening to the pastor at my church and he said there were easily other ways the officer could’ve went about it.”

(I3) Rhonda Rodcers: “It was really sad. It’s a shame of what happened to him. It’s sad to see that were losing so many young black men for no reason. I think the officer was abusing his power. A lot of these cops think they can do whatever just because he has that badge and it’s really sad.”

Q: What do you think the real reason is why Antwon was killed?

(I2) James Elesser: “I’m not really hearing about how the boy could’ve just did what the officer told him. I’m not saying what the officer did was right. Running away can trigger an instant chain of events but can be easily prevented if he didn’t run. If he didn’t run away, chances are he would be alive today.”

Q: Do you agree with the protests that have been happening over the past few days?

(I1) Andrea Hawkins: “I think that the reason for the first night of protesting was good, but I think that there is another way going about it rather than blocking traffic on the parkway. Because, it’s dangerous, you saw drivers trying to drive through crowds, which will hurt or kill people, so I think there was a better way than that.”

(I3) Rhonda Rodcers: “I like what they did to protest but there were different ways they could’ve done about it than blocking the parkway so nobody would be hurt.”