Cops Shoot Denver Teen To Death Charging Her Of Striking Officer With Car

An angry crowd of residents has gathered in Denver, demanding a special prosecutor to probe into the killing by the police of a 16-year-old girl, Jessica Hernandez. Their defence is that she struck an officer while driving a stolen car.

The teenager died on Monday morning at an area hospital. That night, the crowd held a protest against the killing, according to nydaily.com.

Jessica's sister, Brianna Diaz, fished out her phone in order to film the police gunning a car with five teenagers, her 16-year-old sister among them. She was being brought home in the car after a sleepover with her friends.

The cops shot a warning, "Don't you dare!" and then fired some bullets on the car on Monday morning.

Denver cops killed Jessica, later claiming that the carload of teenagers was going to "hit officers" by driving the vehicle on them. One girl's leg was shot, while another, Jessica Hernandez, 16, was less lucky, and died. The police said that five teenagers in the car were all "very young in age."

At 6:30 a.m., police officers got a call about a "suspicious vehicle" in an alley, in which there were four girls and a teenaged boy according to witnesses. The gun shots and screams were heard by a lot of people nearby, according to countercurrentnews.com.

Bobbie Diaz, who lived in the alley, said that her 16-year-old daughter was present. Diaz was in bed when she heard the gunshots, and then she heard: "Freeze! Get out of the car!"

When she went outside, she saw the police dragging out the teenagers from the car. The mother saw her daughter among them. "She seemed like she was not responding, not moving. They just yanked her out and handcuffed her," Diaz said.

One of the neighbours filmed one girl being searched by the cops, although she was wounded, and "cuffed, bleeding, and rolled onto her stomach". While no first aid was given, members of community are calling for charges to be filed against officers who were responsible.

There were dozens of classmates and neighbors who joined in the alley which was the spot where the shooting occurred. Some classmates started a march with candles and signs of protest.

Cynthia Valdez, 19, who was Brianna's best friend and classmate agreed: "we're angry about it. It's another life taken by another cop."

The police defence is that the car was headed towards the police, and had injured a police officer in the leg.

But most of the angry crowd has rejected his story, agreeing that it was just made up and the officer was shooting only to prevent them from escaping, not out of self-defence.