On the afternoon of Friday, February 28, several dozen people gathered at the corner of Pelham Avenue and Belair Road where, three days earlier, police shot and killed Dwight Hawkins in front of his grandmother’s house.
“I’ve been raising this man since he was 11, we treated him like he was our own son,” said Anthony Corprew, Hawkins’ uncle. “So it’s like, what do you do when there’s nothing to do because there’s nothing to be done because death is final? You can’t come back from that. But this officer can go home, be with his kids, on administrative leave with pay and all this.”
“They even took his body from us and wouldn’t let us know where he was at for a long period of time,” said Lorraine Hawkins, Dwight’s aunt. .
Three officers followed Hawkins out of a liquor store around the corner and began to chase him when he started to run. “Hands!” they repeatedly screamed before shooting Hawkins 17 times, later claiming they saw a gun in his hand. After the shooting, officers seemed to cheer. The shooting is being investigated by the Maryland Attorney General’s office, which has only rarely brought charges against the officers they have investigated.
“Why is this man still on the force when he just killed a man over there with the same exact MO,” Corprew said of Officer Omar Rodriguez, who also shot and killed Bilal Abdullah in June and only returned to the streets in January. “And it sounded like they were having a party after they shot him.”
Around Corprew and Hawkins people stood holding “Justice for Dwight” signs.
“They look at us as if we are criminals. They are the criminals,” said Shana Hawkins, Dwight’s sister. “They get to shoot fucking first.”
“Cell blocks for killer cops,” members of the West Coalition began to chant.
“You hear that,” Corprew said to Lorraine off to the side. “I like that, ‘Cell blocks for killer cops.’” (Baynard Woods)
