Calls for Justice Mix With Grief

Nineteen-year-old Tyisha Miller was laid to rest at sunset Saturday on a wind-swept cemetery knoll after a stirring, three-hour church service that was part funeral and part civil protest, imploring God to dispense justice for her death from police bullets.

Calling her killing more brutal than the slaughter of a farm animal, one of her cousins, the Rev. Dewayne Butler, shouted passionately to about 800 mourners, “Oh, yes, I’m outraged! I’m upset! I’m angry! No, I don’t want to perpetrate a riot, but yes, I’m angry.

“The Bible commands us to love, so I love those individuals [who shot her]. But just because I love them doesn’t mean I don’t want to see them arrested.

“Yeah, we need to riot. Not in our community,” he said, “but in our spirit.”

Turning the funeral service into an echo of previous protests of Miller’s shooting death Dec. 28, Butler cried out, “What do you want?” The congregation responded widely and loudly, “Justice!”

“When do you want it?” he shouted. “Now!” they answered.

“No justice, no peace!” he responded.

Butler’s remarks followed those of about a dozen other area ministers, who repeated their plea that anger over Miller’s death be channeled into prayer, not violence.

But the anger was nonetheless palpable inside the white walls of the New Joy Baptist Church.

“We don’t want to play the race card, but it’s already been played,” Butler told the gathering. “Had she not been sleeping while black, we wouldn’t have had this crime. . . . How can you expect the RPD [Riverside Police Department] to get away with murder? How can we expect this to go unpunished, unchallenged?”

Miller, an African American, was with friends in the early morning hours of Dec. 28, when her car had a flat tire and she pulled into the parking lot of a Riverside gas station. Two companions, leaving her in the car, phoned her home for help and when they returned, found Miller apparently unconscious inside the locked, idling vehicle.

The companions then phoned her home again, asking that someone with a key come to the station, and called 911 as well, noting that the teenager was not responding to them--and had a gun in her lap.

Both paramedics and police responded but, because of the weapon, paramedics were told to stay clear, the Police Department said. The officers--three whites and one Latino--were unable to rouse Miller, and one officer broke out her driver’s door window.

At that moment, Miller allegedly made a movement for the gun, a .380-caliber semiautomatic, police investigators have said. One or more of the officers opened fire. Evidence markers at the scene indicated that about two dozen shots may have been discharged. An autopsy showed that Miller was struck 12 times and killed immediately.

At issue--and the source of controversy that has spread on radio talk shows and commentaries around the country--is whether the police overreacted in shooting Miller. Police have yet to disclose whether she fired her weapon.

A police spokesman has said the police on the scene thought it was necessary to break into her car immediately because she may have needed urgent medical care. One witness at the scene has reported that Miller appeared to be frothing from the mouth.

Initial toxicology reports released Thursday indicated that Miller’s blood alcohol level was 0.13% when she died and that her system contained traces of marijuana.

The FBI has opened an inquiry into the shooting to determine whether a full-fledged investigation is warranted by the Justice Department.

Ministers preached along a fine line at Saturday’s funeral, coupling spiritual comfort with righteous anger. Miller’s silver and white casket, adorned with a bouquet of pink carnations, was situated at the front of the church, near her mother and other members of her extended family.

Said the Rev. Bernell Butler, another of Miller’s cousins, “If she’s guilty of anything, [it is that] she was responsible enough to stay with the car. . . . Little did she know that the police, people who serve and protect us,” would kill her.

“This battle is not ours. It belongs to the Lord,” said the Rev. Ron Gibson, one of the preachers sharing the pulpit. “I don’t care what the circumstances were surrounding Tyisha’s homicidal death. She was killed unjustly by the police officers. . . . We won’t rest until the police officers are out of the police force. [But] that’s why we won’t riot. That’s why our choir sang, ‘Hold on, everything’s gonna be all right.’ ”

Said the Rev. Jerry Louder, “We’re not going to burn. We’re not going to shoot. We’re not going to do anything ugly. We’re just going to smile as we watch justice flow.”

Miller was remembered Saturday as an energetic, quick-smiling teenager who was active in church activities and sports, and who eagerly stood her ground on a softball field dominated by men.

“She has a face, a personality, a family, a community,” said Dewayne Butler.