Riverside March Marks Anniversary of Tyisha Miller’s Slaying by Police

About 85 people commemorated the one-year anniversary of the death of Tyisha Miller by marching 2 1/2 miles Tuesday from the gas station where she was slain by police to City Hall, chanting “Shame on Riverside!” along the way.

Motorists were backed up behind the marchers for up to a mile along the way, and at least one bystander yelled at the group to “get out of town.” But the 90-minute march, under police escort, and the rallies that began and concluded it were peaceful.

“Some people see us and call us racist,” the Rev. Bernell Butler, a cousin of Miller’s, shouted during the march. “They don’t want to take the time to hear what we have to say. We ask the question, when is murder murder? Why is there a double standard under the law? Shame on Riverside for the police cover-up.”

A year ago Tuesday, 19-year-old Miller, who was black, drove her car to a gas station with a flat tire. Family and friends found her there unconscious and called 911 for help, warning that she had a gun in her lap.

The four responding police officers broke the window of her locked car to grab the gun, saying later they were concerned for her physical well-being. They said she reached for the weapon and, fearing for their own safety, each opened fire, striking her 12 times.

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask and state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer both chastised the officers for showing poor judgment, but said the shooting was not criminal, and neither pressed charges.

All four officers and their supervising sergeant were later fired by Riverside Police Chief Jerry Carroll.

One of the officers, Paul Bugar, recently was hired as a civilian dispatcher for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which has prompted protest marches there as well.

Tuesday’s marchers called for county and federal grand jury investigations into the shooting, claiming it was racially motivated. The officers who shot Miller are white.

“The biggest gang is not the drug cartel; the biggest gang is not organized crime,” Butler said at City Hall. “The biggest gang is in uniforms.”

The U.S. attorney’s office has begun a criminal review of the shooting and of the Police Department’s policies and procedures, because of allegations of institutional racism within the department.

A spokesman said Tuesday he was unsure when the reviews would be completed.

Also pending is a federal lawsuit against the officers and the city by the family, claiming violation of the teenager’s civil rights.