LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — More calls for justice from Las Vegas community members filled the streets of downtown Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon during a rally for a local realtor who was shot and killed by a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer last week.
The Stretch for Change Foundation organized the rally on behalf of 43-year-old Brandon Durham and his family.
"Brandon Durham should be alive, and we should be able to have trust that our public servants are going to serve the interest of the public," said Quentin Savwoir, president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP.
Nearly 100 demonstrators marched from City Hall to Fremont Street, holding signs that read "A Voice for Brandon," and "Justice for Brandon." They could be heard chanting, "We want justice for Brandon!"
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Durham was shot and killed on Tuesday, Nov. 12 after he called police to report a home invasion at his house near Sunset Park.
Las Vegas police Officer Alexander Bookman entered Durham's home and found him and the suspect, 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux, struggling over a knife.
In body-worn camera footage since released by LVMPD, you can hear Bookman tell them to drop the knife. Seconds later, Bookman fires the shots that killed Durham.
"He had a beautiful daughter named Isabella who he was protecting in the next room," said Durham's friend Traevon Frederick, who spoke at the rally. "He had her hiding in the bathroom from the intruder who was breaking his windows, who was trying to attack him and kill him."
Frederick told the crowd he and Durham's family are devastated.
"What Brandon meant to me was the world," Frederick said. "That was my true friend, and we don't get too many in the world like that. We are broken, man."
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Rally organizer Stretch Sanders says the deadly shooting has left members of the community afraid.
"Any one of us could be Brandon Durham," Sanders said. "And then you wonder why we don't feel comfortable to call law enforcement — because these things happen."
And now these demonstrators are asking for accountability.
"I personally don't want white officers interacting with people of color if they are not trained," Sanders said. "There needs to be people coming to do some type of cultural training."
Next Saturday, a vigil will be held in Durham's memory at the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue on Carey Avenue and M.L.K. Boulevard from 3 to 5 p.m.
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