Protesters block DC streets to slam police shooting of black man

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets of Washington DC to demand justice for an unarmed African-American man who was gunned down by police last month.

The Black Lives Matter protesters marched through Northwest Washington near the intersection of New York and New Jersey avenues Monday night and shut down several intersections.

The demonstration followed a rally and vigil at a park near the site where 31-year-old Terrence Sterling was shot and killed by DC Officer Brian Trainer on September 11.

Among the speakers, Black Lives Matter activist April Goggans asked fellow protesters to begin a new campaign using social media to draw national attention to the case.

“Terence is a peaceful guy,” said Jerry Formey, a friend of Sterling’s. “That’s why we’re protesting … Anything less would dishonor his name.”

Sterling was shot after allegedly ramming his motorcycle into a police cruiser. The officer who shot him did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting.

The demonstrators demanded that Trainer, 27, be arrested and held accountable for the fatal shooting.

The deaths of other black people in recent weeks have also angered communities in El Cajon, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Experts from the United Nations warned in a report last week that African Americans in the US were facing a “human rights crisis.”

Police killings of African Americans “and the trauma they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynchings,” said the report, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council last Monday.