NAACP Criticizes Slaying by Police

The board of the NAACP’s Long Beach chapter voted Thursday to condemn the fatal police shooting last month of a knife-wielding schizophrenic woman, which has led to a deluge of concern in the black community.

The 15-member board unanimously approved a resolution that demands a meeting with Long Beach city officials “and assignment of a community relations team to address African American concerns of police brutality and excessive force.”

The resolution will be presented to the chapter’s 300 members at its monthly meeting Feb. 17.

Community concern has been mounting since the Jan. 19 shooting of Marcella Byrd, and by mid-afternoon Thursday word of the charged NAACP board meeting and vote had leaked out.

A protest rally is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday at Lincoln Park beside the main downtown library, organized by the Peace Action Network, a group concerned with broad civil rights issues. The rally will start at the park, and participants are set to march a few blocks away to Top Valu Market, where Byrd’s failure to pay for groceries launched her into her fatal encounter with police.

Byrd, 57, who was 5-foot-3, weighed 277 pounds and was wearing high heels at the time, allegedly displayed a kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade when store workers confronted her in the parking lot. They backed off and called police, who located her after 11 a.m. that Saturday.

First one officer, then several, ordered Byrd to stop and drop her knife, and she did neither. As she started to cross the street toward a Gold’s Gym and the downtown restaurant district, officers fired pellet-filled bean bags at Byrd. The department said these did not stop her and seemed to infuriate her, at which point she raised her knife as if to throw it.

Police officials would not say whether the knife was raised over Byrd’s head but said officers believed they were in danger. At least three fired at Byrd, who was wounded numerous times in the torso and died a few hours later in surgery.

Her survivors--a son, daughter and sister--have said they intend to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.

The NAACP’s board meeting was its first since the shooting.

Chapter president Naomi Rainey said the organization’s board meetings are confidential and its rules prevented her from discussing the resolution before it was voted on by the general membership.

“It was a heated discussion, I will say that,” she said, adding that it focused on members’ concerns about the shooting and “the treatment of African Americans by the police department.”

Investigations into the shooting are underway by the department and by the L.A. coroner and district attorney’s offices, which routinely examine officer-involved deaths.

Police Chief Jerome Vance, who has been closely involved in the investigation, was surprised to learn of the NAACP board’s position, said Sgt. Steve Filippini, a department spokesman.

“He’s been meeting with community groups to discuss their concerns, and he already met with the president of the NAACP,” Filippini said. “He just met with the gal, so it’s a little funny the way it’s come out.”

Several sources on the NAACP board said the condemnation resolution is unusual for the chapter. But Byrd attended church with the chapter’s secretary, a school teacher, one board member said, adding: “This time it’s close to home, someone we know.”