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Deadly police shooting in Minnesota sends familiar shockwaves of pain to Baltimore

Posted at 9:02 PM, Apr 13, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-13 23:10:54-04

BALTIMORE — Six years ago, all eyes were on Baltimore.

This week marks 6 years since a 25-year-old black man named Freddie Gray was taken into police custody in West Baltimore.

He died days later from injuries he suffered on his way to jail.

This city is still healing from that pain.

Now, the country's eyes are on Minneapolis as we see the fallout of the shooting of Daunte Wright and the trial of Derek Chauvin.

Kwame Rose was 20 years old, the same age as Wright, when he was out in the streets protesting after Gray's death.

“You look back now six years, I can’t believe it’s been that long, but how many instances like what happened in Minneapolis have happened since than and continued to happen.”

Turning on the news to see another black man killed by someone sworn to protect them is exhausting and painful.

For years, Rose has turned those emotions into actions to help black communities.

Police say Duante Wright was trying to get away when they were arresting him on a warrant.

The officer who shot and killed him said she thought she was firing her taser.

But hearing Wright was initially pulled over for an expired tag having and air fresheners in the car brought Rose back to a conversation he had with a friend who told him to take his down.

A conversation a lot of young black men unfortunately have had.

“She was like this is how police target black,” Rose said. “They are going to say you have weed and that air freshener is to cover up the smell. I took it down immediately. To see this kid get pulled over for something like that. Black people should not have to act a certain way to survive a police encounter. Unfortunately, even when we do think the right way as we see with Lt. in Virginia it still doesn’t guarantee your success of making it home.”