The group met for less than an hour in the field next to the old Dayton Unit NAACP building in the 1500 block of West Third Street.
Donald Domineck, chairman of the Midwest Region Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, said the rally was for Black Lives Matter Dayton to stand in concert with other groups across the country protesting the killing of Black men and women by police.
“This is just basically to let people know that we are disgruntled and discouraged with the latest shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota,” he said.
Wright, 20, was an unarmed Black man shot and killed Sunday by police following a traffic stop. The officer said she was going to stun him with her Taser, but instead pulled out her duty weapon and shot him one time. Her action was a mistake, according to the police chief; he and the veteran officer resigned Tuesday.
Prosecutors announced Wednesday that the officer has been charged in Wright’s death.
“Even in cases where there is gray area, we know that there is a problem with how Black men in particular are approached by police,” Domineck said. “So even if the Minnesota police department comes back and says it’s an accident, is what they’re saying, there’s still some concerns because of the ways Black men are profiled and the way they’re approached.”
The Black Lives Matter movement promotes social justice and racial equality. In Dayton, there were past rallies following the deaths last year of George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Both were unarmed and killed by police.
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