Protesters marched through Center City Tuesday a year after a man was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop in Philadelphia.
Members of the Black Lives Matter movement held a rally around 4 p.m. and marched from City Hall to the District Attorney's Office to protest the death of 26-year-old Brandon Tate-Brown.
Tate-Brown was stopped Dec. 15, 2014 by Officers Nichols Carrelli and Heng Dang on Frankford Avenue. Police say Tate-Brown had a semiautomatic pistol in his car and a struggle ensued, which ended with Carrelli shooting him in the back of the head. Tate-Brown was pronounced dead at the scene. After an investigation, District Attorney Seth Williams decided not to charge the two officers.
"Tate-Brown had a gun in the car with his DNA on it, tried to get it on more than one occasion and was shot because he put two Philadelphia police officers and everyone else who was at the scene that evening in danger," Williams said in a statement.
Williams did not address the erroneous narrative that took hold the morning after the shooting and persisted for six months until the city released surveillance videos and interview transcripts.
Police originally said Tate-Brown was reaching into his rental car for a loaded pistol. They now concede he was running around the back of the car when Officer Carrelli fired, believing Tate-Brown was going to the car for a gun. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey blames the original false narrative on a rush to provide the public details.
Williams echoed the original police story line at a press conference clearing Carrelli and Dang which claimed Tate-Brown had "tried to reach inside to the place where he knew he had put his gun" before Carrelli shot him.
Williams' spokesman Cameron Kline said the prosecutor's statement did not change the narrative. Rather, he said, Williams' earlier comments about Tate-Brown reaching for a gun did not necessarily mean the man had his hand inside the door or window of the vehicle.
Brian Mildenberg, the lawyer for Tate-Brown's mother Tanya Brown-Dickerson, suggested Williams charge Carrelli and Dang with obstruction of justice or interfering with a police investigation because details of what they told investigators appeared to change over time. He also demanded Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey reassign Carrelli and Deng to desk duty pending further investigation.
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Ramsey said the officers, cleared of criminal wrongdoing and potential violations of department protocols, would remain on regular duty.
"It's tragic whenever anyone loses their life, but the matter has been investigated," he said.
He said a breakdown in communication between the police department's internal affairs division, which investigated the case, and the public affairs office, which interacts with the media, hindered the public disclosure of updated information.
"I have no regret putting that information out, but I do know that we need to make sure and double-check and triple-check and get it out there if something changes," Ramsey said. ""There are a lot of moving parts when something like that happens. There was no intent to deceive. There were no lies told."
Brown-Dickerson filed a lawsuit against the city and officers in September. She contends her son was running away from a police beating when he was shot. The civil rights suit sought to be certified as a class action lawsuit to include other victims of excessive force by Philadelphia Police. The suit alleged that, “the powers that be did not want ‘another Ferguson’ in Philadelphia.”
Dickerson attended Tuesday’s rally and spoke to reporters.
“I want accountability,” she said. “I want my son’s side heard and I want a judge to hear it and then determine who was right and who was wrong. I do not want the FOP to say on television their right is justified because there’s no justification in killing someone with no weapon in their hand and running away from you.”
“I’m asking for accountability from the city of Philadelphia. And I’m asking for people to reach out and be concerned that someone lost their child.”
Protesters during Tuesday’s march walked inside Center City businesses, including the Apple and Gap stores on Walnut street as well as a restaurant. They also frequently chanted "F*** the Police." No one was arrested during the protest however.
