Police Shot Into A Crowd, Leaving Survivors To Deal With The Aftermath

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Via Wikimedia Commons
Zain Murdock
August 3, 2022

26-year-old Yekalo Weldehiwet was at a birthday party in downtown Denver, Colorado, when he heard a shot ring out. Then came another, but this one was for him. Pain immediately flashed in his arm, fracturing the bone. 

It wasn't until he read the news the next day that he learned who shot him: police officers, who’d fired into a CROWD of bystanders!

Denver police defended their behavior by saying they were "defending their own life." But the armed man they were after hadn't fired a single shot. 

The cops, however, fired at least seven, injuring six bystanders in total.

"When police officers feel they are in danger, it changes to protect and serve themselves, and not to protect and serve the public," said Weldehiwet's attorney. This is clear even in the officers' response to their mass shooting. 

They refused to take immediate accountability for their actions.

Weldehiwet still wants answers. "I felt unsafe. For them to shoot in a mass crowd like that with uncertainty - it blew my mind," he said. "I am angry. I am frustrated. I am in pain."

Police are not here to make us safer. They escalate situations, cause problems that don't exist and worsen existing problems. It's not unfair for us to ask ourselves: why even have cops in the first place?

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