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Critiques For The Culture: Animal Control at Firehouse Theatre

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In Critiques For The Culture’s latest contribution to GayRVA, Taneasha White and Brooke Taylor review Firehouse Theatre’s production of Animal Control, a play that raises ethical questions around pet ownership.

Animal Control, written by Chandler Hubbard, made its second debut with a revised script at Richmond’s Firehouse Theatre this month. We had the opportunity to view one of their preview showings, thanks to director Joel Bassin. Animal Control follows Kim Hawkins, manager of the Carson City Pound, and discusses compassion, anger, and internal biases. 

The care and consideration given to the dog in this story is unsettlingly reminiscent of the “Tommie the Dog” situation, making us wonder why the decision was made to host this particular play at this time. 

For those that may have missed it, back in February a dog was tied to a fence and lit aflame in Abner Clay Park. The dog, nicknamed “Tommie” by those who rescued him, later died of his wounds. As a result of this heinous crime, the city rallied together to not only track down the person who committed the crime, but raised over $10,000 for an emergency veterinary care fund named the “Tommie Fund.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with this collective effort. However, the part that stings is that when it comes to Black and Brown folks who suffer violence or death in violent ways, especially in our city, a lot of those same people are quiet. 

Our Ratings

Our Critiques for The Culture rating is based on representation of marginalized folks, showcased with our Black fists. Our overall rating is the quality of the play overall, independent of the representation that may or may not be there, represented with stars.  

Photo by Bill Sigafoos, courtesy Firehouse Theatre

Brooke

Animal Control takes the audience on an emotional trip around the ethical considerations of dog ownership. It drew very sharp emotions from me as both an animal lover and a Black person, as the dog in this play is the recipient of much emotional labor by the characters. He was abused as a puppy and has trust issues that cause him to act out aggressively towards others. Even though he has lashed out before, the animal control agency the play focuses on is compassionate enough to give him chance after chance.

I was left wondering many things. What if we treated human beings this same, considerate way? What if the first reaction wasn’t to use lethal force at the slightest provocation? What would our country look like if we truly considered the mental health of folks who have been labeled as aggressive? How would our lives be changed if actual courthouse trials lasted at least as long as this play — and weren’t pushed towards plea deals? What if our underserved youth had adults who believed in them as much as this dog’s owner?

While I fully believe that animals deserve chances to be understood, why can’t Black and Brown people command that same level of respect?

Oh, to have all the love (and rights) afforded an American dog. 2 Black Fists. 

From a technical standpoint, the play was great! I loved the sensory elements that were incorporated (cigarette smoke, audible sounds of barking dogs and rain, wet jackets of characters, etc.) The lighting was fantastic — aiding in the development of drama and tension through the acts of the play. 4 Stars.

Taneasha 

Animal Control attempted to shine a light on the biases that people have, showcasing the owner of the aggressive dog as a cliche rural white man with a mullet, clad in cut off plaid and dirty blue jeans. We see that this character is actually very compassionate, and his care and fear show up in anger. The show gave an example of the complexity of anger, and how we shouldn’t assume people’s intentions and capabilities based on their appearance.

The bigger takeaway for me? White people care a whole lot about animals. 

Watching people care more for animals than people who look like you is both a regular and an oppressive reality for Black and Brown people in America. Social media blows up when we get wind of another Black person killed, and I take note of who is vocal about what should happen and who is to blame. Folks who have been silent while folks are slain in the street, when Black trans women go missing and end up dead, are always too busy when asked to show up to a rally for our community. Yet those same folks were up in arms when the Tommie the Dog situation occurred. Suddenly, they had the time to post their own calls to action on social media. Suddenly, they had enough room in their budget to raise thousands of dollars in two days. Ten days after Tommie was found, Virginia politicians passed Tommie’s Law, making animal cruelty a felony in Virginia. Ten days. 

Meanwhile, when Marcus-David Peters was shot and killed during a mental health episode on the highway by the Richmond Police, the advocacy group Justice and Reformation For Marcus-David Peters pushed for the Marcus Alert, which would, according to Justice And Reformation, “support mental health professionals as first responders to possible or confirmed mental health crises, rather than police officers trained to use deadly force.” It was met with silence. Peters has been gone over a year, and there has yet to be any progress made. If we don’t value the lives of animals over the lives of people of color, explain that fact to me. 1.5 Black fists. 

In reference to the quality of the show overall, I was highly impressed by the details of the show. On either side of the stage, there were gates. This is where the characters that would be primary in the next act would stand right before the end of intermission, giving you an idea of the tension and feelings that would come up when the show resumed. The lighting was great, and added to the emotionality showcased by the actors on stage. It was very evident that all of the moving pieces of this show were taken into account, making it an all-encompassing experience. 4 stars. 

Animal Control is currently playing at Firehouse Theatre, and will close on Saturday, July 27. For showtimes and tickets, go to animalcontrol2.bpt.me.

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We talk about movies and TV on WRIR 97.3 every Friday at 10am, and WRWK (The Work FM) 93.9 FM every Friday at 7pm.

Top Photo by Bill Sigafoos, courtesy Firehouse Theatre

Op-Ed: True Equity For Richmond Must Include Law Enforcement

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One year after the death of Marcus-David Peters, Chelsea Higgs Wise says that if Richmond wants to talk about equity in matters involving the budget, the city must also talk about equity in matters of law enforcement.

It’s been one year since Marcus-David Peters became the first Richmonder turned into a hashtag after he was shot to death by a Richmond police officer. #marcusdavidpeters. Yet, in a city where the word “equity” was present in every budget conversation over the past month, Richmond has yet to use this same language in reforming our community policing. In a city where we can admit that we have racial inequities within education, transit, housing, and health, admitting that our police department is also in need of a transformation seems to be painfully impossible for city officials.

Since before the death of #MarcusDavidPeters, the Richmond Transparency Accountability Project (RTAP) has been working to advocate for transparency in police practices in RVA. After New Virginia Majority outreach found that over-policing was a high threat to public safety, RTAP began asking questions about the frequency and nature of arrests in Richmond. After two years of RTAP pushing for the release of this data, RPD released information in March of this year that proved disproportionate rates of Black Richmonders are stopped for so-called field interviews, RPD’s rebrand of stop-and-frisk, validating RTAP’s case for an increase of transparency. Due to the continued community mobilizing for transparency in use-of-force data, RPD has since attempted to maintain their records, and, after a decade, promising to update the date from the current system for public record.

Dr. Liz Coston of RTAP urges the community to question the administration’s decisions about policing our minority-majority city, such as their new contract with Soma Global. “Soma Global markets themselves as being a provider of predictive policing technologies,” said Coston. “They argue that those technologies reduce crime. We know from the implementation of those technologies from other communities that they disproportionately harm black and Hispanic communities.” The Harvard Civil Rights Civil Law Review reports that “Algorithms make predictions by analyzing patterns from an initial data set and then look for those patterns in new data. Police data aren’t collected uniformly, and initial data sets fed into algorithms will reflect institutional racial and income bias.” In a city supposedly committed to racial equity, it’s disturbing that Mayor Stoney would choose such a technology, which will clearly increase the already disproportionate rates of Black Richmonders having to endure police field interviews.

Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham retired this past December, reflecting on May 14, 2018, “What really took its toll on me this year was the shooting death of Marcus-David Peters.” The ongoing chief selection process has proved less than thoughtful, due to poor advertisement of community-input meetings, less-than-appropriate facilitation within these meetings, and finally, a Police Chief job description that did not, as previously promised, reflect the input from those community meetings.

RTAP’s engagement also put the group in conversation with the Human Resources office to participate in the new RPD Chief selection. RTAP attended all of the gatherings, taking notes in order to monitor the input included in the job description. However, adding insult to injury, the city’s latest move was to rescind RTAP’s invitation to participate in the process of the Chief selection, explained Kim Rolla of Legal Aid Justice Center on the May 8th episode of Race Capitol.

The death of #MarcusDavidPeters brought another intersection to the public safety issue — the Crisis Intervention Training that is provided for Richmond Police. While we as a city dramatically discussed this year’s budget, the question of how RPD is using the funds allocated to maintain the safety of those in a mental health crisis was absent from the conversation. Therefore, we can expect the same self-preservation priority from the department: Officer Safety First and Always.

To truly see the full impact of policing in Richmond, though, we must look even wider when discussing police interventions in the capital city. Within Richmond sits Virginia Commonwealth University, a public research university with the largest campus police force in the Commonwealth. With 99 sworn officers that have the same powers as a Richmond Police officer, VCU Police recently had its jurisdiction expanded into Richmond’s Black communities. In some areas, it will be possible for Richmonders to be patrolled by RPD, VCUPD, and the Capitol Police, according to Ord. No. 2018-336, which shows the approved jurisdiction expansion for VCU Police.

While Dr. Michael Rao, VCU President, boasts in public speeches about the university’s commitment to diversity and equity, and refers to VCU as “the place to achieve the American dream,” police with VCU printed boldly across their uniforms gear up to add to the patrolling of Black Richmond neighborhoods. One year ago, VCU graduate #MarcusDavidPeters was murdered by RPD, and most recently we had an unnamed Richmond Police Officer threaten Albert Hill middle school students (the officer still refuses to publicly apologize). Meanwhile, this is how Richmond leaders such as Dr. Rao and Mayor Stoney take action to uplift and center the communities they claim to represent — by increasing the number of police in those communities.

A student movement called No Policing in Mental Health wants VCU to replace police officers with mental health clinicians when doing wellness checks on students. When VCUPD Chief John Venuti was asked what qualifies the officers to attempt to interact with individuals going through a mental health crisis, he stated that VCUPD utilizes the same Crisis Intervention Training that RPD officers use. Michael Nyantaki, the Richmond officer who shot and killed #MarcusDavidPeters, was also trained in CIT. On May 14, 2018, even after Officer Nyantakyi acknowledged that he was monitoring someone undergoing a crisis, he still proceeded to escalate the interaction, leading to him killing #MarcusDavidPeters.

When RPD Chief Durham referred to CIT, he stated, “We give 40 hours, and people expect us to get it right,” implying that even he sees the training as inadequate for his team. After the shooting of #MarcusDavidPeters, local community organizers were promised a meeting with Mayor Stoney and Chief Durham about crisis approaches with Richmonders. A year later, this meeting has yet to happen. Whether or not you agree with the RPD’s justification of the shooting, we should all acknowledge that CIT failed that day. And as a city, we should focus on the urgency of getting it right.

In the last month, RVA City Council has heard several examples of the way Richmond loves to speak in terms of “equity” for the city, so I feel it’s important to define what seems to be the word of our time. According to Race Forward, “Equity means fairness and justice, and focuses on outcomes that are most appropriate for a given group, recognizing different challenges, needs, and histories. It is distinct from diversity, which can simply mean variety (the presence of individuals with various identities). It is also not equality, or “same treatment,” which doesn’t take differing needs or disparate outcomes into account. Systemic equity involves a robust system and dynamic process consciously designed to create, support, and sustain social justice. See Racial Justice.”

Yet when it comes to policing, our Richmond City Council and City Administration are silently violent, neglecting to apply the same equitable lens many of the individuals involved claim to champion. So let’s take the advice of Race Forward and also refer to the definition of Racial Justice: “The systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice — or racial equity — goes beyond “anti-racism.” It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports to achieve and sustain racial equity through proactive and preventative measures.”

Preventative measure require deliberate behavior. In the former capital of the confederacy, still a minority-majority city, resisting police transparency is simply an act of denying the racial inequities. The city acknowledges that living in Westover Hills neighborhood predicts a Richmonder lives 20 years longer on average than a Richmonder living in Gilpin Court. Imagine what this same map would show about rates of entry into the criminal justice system. What does over-policing do to a Richmonder’s life expectancy when it is already the lowest in the city? Rather than avoiding the uncomfortable conversation of a community-informed RPD system transformation, we should commit to focusing on removing the white hood of Richmond’s past for an equitable lens into our future.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

Written by Chelsea Higgs Wise with Monica Kelley and Nathan Land. Top Photo: RVA Mag file photo by Landon Shroder

OP-ED: Help Not Death; Marcus-David Peters And The American Mental Health Crisis

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It’s been five months since Marcus-David Peters was gunned down on Interstate 95/64.

Richmond officer Michael Nyantakyi shot Peters twice, after his taser failed to subdue Peters. The entire event came to an end in only 18 seconds. In August, it was ruled that Peters’ death was justifiable homicide. The past few months have not been easy for Peters’ family, nor for those in the community who believe his death was an injustice.

I want to start my commentary by saying that I don’t know. I don’t know what I would have done if I was in Officer Nyantakyi’s shoes. We all like to imagine our own actions in the scenario, but we don’t have the answers, and I’m not a police officer. But I do know that in 18 seconds, a young man’s life was over, and he needed help — not death.

“Help not death” has been the rallying cry of Peters’ family. Peters’ sister, Princess Blanding, has been at the forefront of protests demanding justice for her brother’s death.

There are many shades of gray when we look at this situation, and it’s important to note that the case isn’t black and white — literally. Peters was black; Officer Nyantakyi is black too. But in a  system of law that perpetuates racism and white supremacy, this is still an issue of police brutality.

Mappingpoliceviolence.org shows that 852 people have been killed so far in 2018. In 2017, police killed 1,147 people. Black people made up 25 percent of those killed, despite representing only 13 percent of the population. Less than one percent of officers were charged with a crime.

Last month, Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke was finally convicted of second-degree murder, over four years after fatally shooting 17-year old Laquan McDonald. Timothy Loehmann, who gunned down 12-year-old Tamir Rice, was hired afterward by a police department in rural Ohio. The juxtaposition of these two events show the rarity of cops being held accountable for their actions.

Black people are statistically more likely to be killed by cops than any other race, and the reasons behind this epidemic have deep roots. They stem from a system of oppression that has spanned hundreds of years, and continues to disproportionately affect black citizens.

When a black person encounters the police, they’re often not given the same benefit of the doubt a white person would. Many cases have shown that under similar circumstances to those in which black citizens are killed, white suspects are spared their lives.

For example:

  • Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 19 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last February, was arrested without incident.
  • Dylann Roof was brought into police custody, without any fuss, after murdering nine innocent black churchgoers during a prayer service.
  • Lance Tamayo pointed his pistol at police officers and children in a park. It took the police over an hour to get Tamayo to put his gun down. Officers eventually shot him, but not lethally — and he was given only a three-month sentence.
  • 19-year-old Austin Harrouff killed two strangers, and was found by police biting the face of one of his victims. Police used stun guns and a dog to try and subdue him. When those methods didn’t work, they physically pulled Harrouff off the victim.

In all of these situations, and many more, white people were subdued by police while committing dangerous crimes. Instead of resorting immediately to fatal weapons, officers tried alternative methods to spare the suspects’ lives.

In body cam footage from officers on the scene, Peters is heard saying, “I’m going to fucking kill you” to Officer Nyantakyi — and while Nyantakyi rightfully felt his life was in danger, I still have to wonder why Peters was killed when confronted with similar (and greater) threats by white citizens, police have repeatedly found ways to let them walk away with their lives.

Consider the case of Joseph Houseman, an open-carry advocate, compared with Richmond’s Marcus-David Peters.

During his encounter, Houseman said to police, “I can threaten you. I can threaten your family. I didn’t threaten your family, I said I could.”

The confrontations were similar — both raising threats to law enforcement — but the outcomes for these white and black citizens were not. Houseman failed to comply with officers, and refused a breathalyzer test. Houseman was armed, and threatened officers; he was disarmed, then let go, with his gun returned. Peters was both unarmed and naked, and threatened officers; he was killed on the spot.

Then there’s mental health, cited by families of victims in many cases. In a Washington Post study, it was found that in the first half of 2015, 25 percent of people killed by police were identified as mentally ill.

While the media tends to label white killers as lone wolves with mental health problems, black and brown people’s mental health isn’t brought into the picture. More than 16 percent of the black population has a diagnosable mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), black folks are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems.

But America isn’t talking about mental health in the black community. In cases like that of Somali-American Shukri Ali Said, reaching out for help can actually cost their lives: when Ali Said’s parents called the police seeking help for their daughter, she was shot and killed by Georgia officers.

In Virginia, police are offered crisis intervention team (CIT) training, which was designed to give officers tools and information for encountering, dealing with, and helping citizens with mental illnesses. But to be helpful, the police have to actually join the program: As recent as this July, only about 65 percent of Richmond’s officers have chosen to participate (or 490 officers, out of the city’s total 750).

While officers deal with mental health, they are not trained therapists or psychiatrists — but how can they be expected to de-escalate these situations when CIT training is only an option, not a requirement?

Marcus-David Peters was not given a means to obtain help; instead, the first solution police attempted was his death. This was not just “a tragic situation for all parties,” and it shouldn’t be buried along with Peters. It’s time to consider police interactions with people of color, and the implications when mental illness is also involved.

De-escalation and diversity training is not enough. These systems that are killing our citizens need to be confronted before they can be changed.

The Justice and Reformation For Marcus-David Peters movement is proposing the creation of a “Marcus Alert,” to call on mental health professionals as first responders when community members are in crisis. This idea could shape the future of policing, and potentially save lives — the state of things isn’t changing until measures are put in place to start. These structures go back to slave patrols in the 1700’s, and Americans should not forget that the South’s police force was born from slavery preservation. Richmond created its first full-time police force after Gabriel Prosser led a slave uprising in 1800.

Looking into the origins of policing is imperative for change to happen: From Emmett Till, to Trayvon Martin, to Michael Brown, to Eric Garner, to Sandra Bland, to Tamir Rice, to Philando Castile, to Marcus-David Peters.

It’s easy to sweep these instances under the rug. It’s easy to turn a blind eye when it doesn’t affect you personally. It’s easy to dehumanize a stranger — especially when they’re in a cemetery, and can’t defend themselves in court. It’s easy to view the black body as a symbol of threat in a society that has pushed it as such since long before racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation was screened in the Woodrow Wilson White House.

I’m not pointing fingers or jumping to conclusions without citing facts. I’m asking for empathy towards the black experience — something non-black people will never be able to know firsthand.

I’m asking people to consider that when black people are staring down the barrel of a gun with a cop on the other end, they aren’t given the benefit of the doubt. I’m asking them to ask why we justify the deaths of black children armed with toy guns, like 12-year-old Tamir Rice, but don’t think twice when white children are taught to shoot real weapons at the same age.

I’m asking them to consider why it was that convicted rapist Brock Turner was referred to as “a former Stanford student and star swimmer,” while Trayvon Martin’s high school suspensions were used as justification for his murder.

I’m asking them to realize that black people can no longer “comply” and “follow the rules” when white people are calling the police and having us shot in our own homes. I’m asking them to understand that race-based traumatic stress is real, and that, while black people do persevere and conquer, we’re still out here dying.

This is bigger than one black life lost at the hands of police brutality.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

Top Image by Lindsay Eastham

National March for Justice and Reformation Honors Marcus-David Peters

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Clad in maroon, hundreds of supporters gathered in Richmond today for the National March for Justice and Reformation. The march, planned on the birthday of Marcus-David Peters, was according to the event organizers a way to hold “elected officials and police departments accountable.”

Peters, a VCU graduate and a local high-school biology teacher, was killed by the Richmond Police Department (RPD) in May of this year at the intersection of highways 64 and 95. Experiencing a mental crisis and naked at the time of the shooting, Peters’ death was eventually ruled an “act of justifiable homicide” by Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring: a claim consistently refuted by his sister, Princess Blanding, who leads the Justice and Reformation For Marcus-David Peters movement.

Gathering at VCU’s Siegel Center, the march organizers (including Monica Kelly, who leads the university’s Amnesty International chapter, and Rev. Antonio Redd from Second Baptist Church West End) led the crowd in chanting “help, not death” and “justice and reformation” — both of which have become a rallying cry of the Justice and Reformation movement.

March Organizer Monica Kelly

Speaking first, Kelly questioned why the city has not implemented the Marcus Alert. The alert is one of the core demands of the movement, which would allow a mental health professional to act as a first responder to a person in mental health crisis, reducing the chance for violent escalation with the police.

Redd spoke after Kelly, proclaiming, “We are gathered to march for what is right,” and also acknowledging that Peters cried out for help, but “help was not found.” Addressing the lack of response from VCU, Richmond’s mayor and city council, and the Jefferson Hotel, where Peters worked, Redd claimed that their “silence was complicit” in the circumstances which led to the biology teacher’s death.  He finished by saying it was time to put the city’s elected officials on notice, and that the message they were sending was not an “empty threat.”

Rev. Antonio Redd

Taking to the streets after the initial speeches, the marchers maneuvered down Broad Street before turning onto Belvidere, chanting “shut it down” and “help, not death,” eventually stopping in front of the Jefferson Hotel. Before he was killed, Peters stopped at the hotel and was seen on video acting erratically with other hotel employees. On a platform in front of the hotel, Rev. Lacette Cross from Restoration Fellowship RVA addressed the crowd, calling for “accountability of police and elected officials,” a theme that was consistent throughout the day’s speeches, but not before reminding the crowd that there is “no such thing as a single-issue struggle.”

Rev. Lacette Cross

Before the crowd continued their march towards the RPD Headquarters, poet Rob Gibsun took to the stage. In a powerful address, he spoke about the “undue response” from the university (VCU) where Peters was an alumni, the retreat to our individual “comfort zones,” and the role in the “killing of brown and black people.”

Eventually coming to a stop in front of RPD headquarters, Dr. Ravi Perry, a political science professor from VCU, took to the platform. Acknowledging the complexity of modern law enforcement and how that intersects with the death of Peters, Perry said, “The justice system has impacted our lives, both good and bad,” calling for a greater police accountability that is “seemingly absent.” To make his point further, he told the crowd a story about how he was victimized by police in his native Ohio, being taken out of his parents’ car and held at gunpoint for 20 minutes because he “fit the description” of a drug dealer. “Its a day that reminds me every day that I’m a black man,” he said, after reminding the crowd that police have already killed 852 people in 2018 alone.

Dr. Ravi Perry

Princess Blanding spoke last, thanking the crowd for their continued support and solidarity. Addressing the marchers, she asked why tax dollars pay for the police to have tasers, batons, and pepper spray, but are so quick to use lethal force. “I’m not anti-police,” she said, “I’m pro-black lives matter. I’m pro-brown lives matter. I’m pro-immigrant and I’m pro-LGBTQ.” Calling out the city’s leadership, Blanding said, “We voted them in, we’ll vote them out,” finally demanding that the city implement the Marcus Alert and a civilian review board to oversee the police.

Princess Blanding Addressing the Crowd in-front of RPD HQ

The march ended with Redd leading the crowd in singing happy birthday for Peters in front of the RPD — he would have been 25 years old today.

Some of the best photos from the National March for Justice and Reformation can be found below:

Marching Down Broad St

Marching Towards RPD HQ

Clad in Maroon

Marching Down Broad Street

In Front of the Jefferson Hotel

Poet Rob Gibsun

Marchers at RPD HQ

Listening to Speakers at RPD HQ

*Photos by Landon Shroder

Marcus-David Peters Shooting Declared an “Act of Justifiable Homicide” by Commonwealth Attorney

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In a report released Friday morning, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring said he will not pursue criminal charges against the officer who shot and killed Marcus-David Peters on I-95 on May 14.

Herring described the event as “an act of justifiable homicide,” and said the use of force was “reasonable and necessary” given the unusual circumstances of the event.

Richmond Police Department also announced today in a press release that the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office completed their portion of the investigation of the Peters shooting, who was shot after allegedly showing signs of mental instability. The investigation now must be completed by RPD Internal Affairs using the report submitted by the Department-generated Force Investigation Team (FIT).

“The review of this incident by Commonwealth Attorney Michael Herring and his staff is a critical phase in the criminal investigation of this incident,” said RPD Chief Durham in a press release. “I appreciate the thorough efforts of Mr. Herring and his staff and we respect the decision they have made. This incident will forever remain a tragedy for all those involved.”

Peters, 24, was naked and unarmed during the incident, but charged the officer, who deployed his taser gun. After the taser proved ineffective and Peters threatened to kill him, Richmond Officer Michael Nyantakyi pulled his weapon. Peters died early the next morning.

“Mr. Peters’ altered mental state, his nudity and the fact that he was unarmed are all mitigating factors,” reads the Commonwealth Attorney’s report, co-written by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney LaToya H. Croxton. “However, there should be little question that the officer reasonably feared that Mr. Peters’ aggression and apparent insensitivity to pain foreclosed lesser interventions and therefore constituted an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.”

This decision comes after months of activism from citizens and community leaders, spearheaded by Peters’ sister, Princess Blanding, who had no faith Herring would “make the right decision, which is to charge the officer.” She and other activists argue that Peters needed “help, not death.” Peters was a high school biology teacher who hoped to dedicate his life to youth in need.

His autopsy report found Ritalin present in Peters’ system, a drug commonly used for ADHD and narcolepsy. Peters did not have a prescription for the drug.

Officer Nyantaki has been on administrative leave since the shooting, but will now be placed on administrative assignment in non-public contact position until the investigation is complete.  

Marcus David Peters’ Family Says Autopsy Report Showed No Drugs in System

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Princess Blanding, the sister of the late Marcus David Peters, has come out saying she has the autopsy report of her brother, which she said establishes that there was no drugs in his system at time of death. RVA Mag was unable to obtain a copy of the report, which other outlets have reported may be a preliminary report and not the official, final report.

Just yesterday, Mayor Levar Stoney held community office hours, where Peters’ death was a central point. Blanding, one of the most outspoken about her brother’s death, continued to ask: how many times was her brother shot? Accounts have been spotty, but Blanding said the report she had established three, not two, shots, which she said contradicted prior information.

Bodycam footage was released previously by the Richmond Police Department, which characterized the release as an attempt at transparency. The footage from May 14 shows Peters exiting his vehicle at the edge of Interstate 95 and rolling around on the pavement. According to police reports, Peters, who was unarmed, “lunged” at Officer Michael Nyantakyi, who then fired his weapon. Blanding has stated in past meetings with the mayor that her brother has been accused of being under the influence of drugs at the time of his death. “That’s what they wanted people to think. He had to be strung out on some drugs… None detected.” If the autopsy report she had at the meeting is accurate, it would contradict the assumptions she described at the meeting.

This past Tuesday, the Commonwealth Attorney’s office received a report from the Richmond Police Department. According to WTVR, the report contains “witness statements, security camera videos, the officer’s body-worn camera video, and forensic evidence.” However, toxicology statements have not been issued yet.

The Commonwealth Attorney’s office will be concluding its investigation into the death to confirm Blanding’s statements. Although the process could take weeks or even months, his family and the broader Richmond community seems committed to keeping pressure on the city until a resolution is reached.