Marchers Praise Firing of Officers in Miller Case

Decidedly more upbeat than at past marches, more than 75 critics of the police shooting of Tyisha Miller conducted their weekly protest Monday, again stopping in front of police headquarters--but this time applauding Friday’s decision by Police Chief Jerry Carroll to fire the four officers who fatally shot the 19-year-old woman last December.

“The healing has begun,” said the Rev. Ron Gibson, a Riverside minister and one of the protest organizers. But he added, “We’re not happy just with termination. We want incarceration.”

The Riverside County district attorney’s office has said it will not criminally prosecute the four officers, but critics say they still hope the officers will be charged with federal violation of civil rights.

Miller was killed Dec. 28 when the four officers--Daniel Hotard, 23; Paul Bugar, 24; Wayne Stewart, 25; and Michael Alagna, 27--responded to a 911 call and found her unresponsive in a locked vehicle with a handgun in her lap. They said that when they broke a window and an officer leaned inside to grab the gun, she moved for it, causing them to open fire, striking her 12 times. The officers can appeal the decision to dismiss them.

Another local minister, the Rev. Paul Munford, said at Monday’s rally: “We’re celebrating that this movement is having an impact on government, and signifies that the days of putting police brutality under a rock is over.”

Demonstrators marched around City Hall, to the county administrative offices and finished in front of the district attorney’s office.