Terrance Kellom
Detroiters vented at a community meeting held by law enforcement Wednesday night following the fatal shooting by an ICE agent, a gathering that appeared to be part of an effort by police to prevent the kind of violence that has erupted in Baltimore.
Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free P writes that Detroit Police Chief James Craig referred to tensions in Ferguson and said: "That's not Detroit." Federal law enforcement officials were also in attendance.
Residents attending the meeting at the Grace Community Church on Detroit's west side expressed concern that the Detroit Police Department was becoming more militarized and was relying too much on federal agencies to help fight crime. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who shot the 20-year-old man, Terrance Kellom, who was wanted for armed robbery, was part of a multi-jurisdictional Detroit Fugitive Apprehension team headed up by the local office of the U.S. Marshals.Service.
Authorities are saying that Kellom charged the agent with a hammer before he was shot multiple times. Kellom's father has insisted there was no hammer and that authorities are fabricating circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Craig defends the use of such task forces to help battle crimes.
"They are key partners to the Detroit Police Department," Warikoo quotes the chief as saying. They "go after the most violent felons."
Craig also assured residents he would be transparent about the results of an investigation into the shooting.
Eusebia Aquino-Hughes, a nurse from Detroit. also is quoted:
"We are tired of ICE killing our people. Please stop...Do I look like a criminal? "I have been spit on, slapped and a gun put to my head by ICE. " . . .
Ron Scott, head of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, dismissed the church meeting as a public relations attempt by the police and federal law enforcement. He's concerned that because the shooting involved a federal agent, there won't be any local accountability in the investigation.
"It was damage control," Scott said of the meeting. "The salient points were not addressed."
