At a rally Saturday in Pilsen, 20-year-old Erik Vega referred to as Chicago police “scared” to provide his circle of relatives extra details about how officials got here to fatally shoot his older brother 5 days previous, a block from the place he addressed the gang.
“This isn’t like other cases, because [police] know my brother was innocent,” he instructed supporters that accrued on the base of Plaza Tenochtitlan’s iconic obelisk monument.
Erik Vega promised demonstrators they’d get justice for his brother, 26-year-old Miguel Vega, who used to be shot via police Monday night time.
“I’m very angry he had to go this way,” Erik Vega mentioned.
More than 100 folks then marched with Vega’s circle of relatives from the plaza at 18th and Loomis streets towards the Near West District police station on Blue Island Avenue, however had been blocked via dozens of cops in revolt tools from getting close to the station.
The demonstrators then marched East on 18th Street.
Family of Miguel Vega march on 18th Street with supporters Saturday in Pilsen. Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Protesters carried indicators that learn “We want answers” and “Release the footage,” regarding unreleased police frame digital camera video that Vega’s circle of relatives believes will exonerate him.
The capturing is beneath investigation via the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which most often releases any pictures 60 days after a police-involved capturing.
Miguel Vega used to be shot via officials about 10:45 p.m. Monday after police say Vega fired at their automobile as they answered to a decision of suspicious individual within the 1300 block of West 19th Street.
Officers returned hearth and Vega used to be struck within the head. He died a little while later at Stroger Hospital.
Two folks arrested on the scene had been later launched with out fees, police mentioned. A pistol used to be recovered.
Police warned officials Friday of conceivable retaliatory violence concentrated on police from a gang that says territory locally.
At the march, Erik Vega accused cops of responding to the decision “aggressively” and mentioned it looked as if it would him the officials had been “looking for trouble.”
The “truth will come out sooner or later,” he added.
Miguel Vega’s second-youngest brother, Johnny Vega, instructed demonstrators his brother used to be a “was a great man — a man that didn’t have things go as planned — but he always figured out a way to do the right thing.”
Demonstrators and police line up at 18th and Loomis streets on Saturday all through a march in beef up of the circle of relatives of Miguel Vega, who used to be fatally shot via police previous this week locally. David Struett/Sun-Times
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) attended the march and requested for a second of silence for Miguel Vega, who the alderman mentioned used to be the sufferer of a “rotten system.”
“Only the truth will set us all free,” Sigcho-Lopez mentioned. “When is it going to be enough?”
Sigcho-Lopez also referred to as for police to unlock extra details about the capturing in order that Vega’s circle of relatives and the group can get started therapeutic.
As the march ended, Erik Vega spoke to the gang however directed his ideas on the officials who had shot his brother, pronouncing “I wish you could be in my shoes. … I’m pretty sure you’re not feeling the pain I am now.”