PEORIA — “You could tell there was fear in that man’s voice. He knew he was going to die.”
Amber Strong told the story of her last communication with her late boyfriend, Daniel El, at the Stand Up for Peace event Monday evening at the Gateway Building.
Strong said she was on the phone with El when Peoria police officers pulled him over at about 2:30 a.m. last Thursday. Over the phone, she said she heard El cooperating with everything the officers said.
“They asked Daniel what was on the side of him. He told them it was an ashtray, cigarettes,” she said. “They asked Daniel what the blue thing on the floor was: it was a blue Bic lighter. He tried to show the officer. When the other officer came up, it was automatically, ‘Show me your hands, show me your hands.’ Daniel said, ‘Here are my hands.’ Then the officer said, ‘Put your hands on the wheel, put your hands on the wheel.’ The last thing I heard Daniel say was ‘My hands are on the wheel, my hands are on the wheel. You see my hands are on the wheel.’ After that, you heard nothing from Daniel.”
El was pronounced dead at an area hospital Thursday after suffering 16 gunshot wounds in a shootout with police that also landed one officer in the hospital with a gunshot wound, according to authorities.
About 20 protesters attended the Peoria Community Against Violence event Monday with signs in hand, including community members and leaders from the Black Justice Project, a community organization with the mission “to fight for human rights and equity of the black community,” according to its Facebook page.
“The reason why we are here today protesting our elected officials and protesting the police department is because they are not transparent,” said Chama St. Louis, co-founder of the Black Justice Project. “And we know that in order to get real justice, we know in order for Daniel to be vindicated if he was not in the wrong, in order for people like Eddie Russell Jr. to be vindicated, you have to have people pushing for truth and pushing for accountability.”
The protesters made up about half of the attendees at the Stand Up.
“I am happy to see this group out protesting and having your signs and all that,” said Gloria Clark, co-chairperson of PCAV. “But where were you last week when we had another homicide? Where were you at the beginning of the year when we had another homicide? Where were you last year when we had 11 homicides?”
Keri Hayes, co-founder of the Black Justice Project, said the group was there because they want justice.
“We are tired of the police mishandling members of the community,” she said. “The fact that we have two slain young men, both under the age of 30, killed within four months of one another with the same one police officer is the reason why we are here in this room today.”
Hayes said the group stands with PCAV, not against it.
“However, we cannot be supportive of things that give the police praise,” she said. “We cannot be supportive of things that target our community, that are channeling our young African-American males into the penal system every single day.”
Terry Burnside, co-chairperson of PCAV, told the protesters he respected their movement.
“We’re all in the same thing together. At the end of the day, we’re talking about community,” he said.
Holding up PCAV’s pledge recited at the beginning of every Stand Up for Peace, he said he was struck by one line in particular, seeing the two organizations interact.
“I’ve probably read this thing dozens of times, but tonight one line stuck out with me: When we all join together every day to make it happen, the violence will stop,” he said. “This is community. There’s enough of us right here to make a difference in this city. I respect all.”
Kelsey Watznauer can be reached at 686-3194 or kwatznauer@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @kwatznauer.