{"id":33617,"date":"2020-12-11T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T05:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=33617"},"modified":"2020-12-11T23:44:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T05:44:04","slug":"protest-follows-police-killing-of-oklahoma-city-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/12\/11\/protest-follows-police-killing-of-oklahoma-city-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest follows police killing of Oklahoma City man"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson (left) supports Ameerah Gaines (right) at the Black Lives Matter protest, Friday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Oklahoma City Police responding to a disturbance call killed a man Friday.<\/p>

He has been identified by family members as Bennie Edwards \u2013 a black man who struggled with a mental health diagnosis.<\/p>

Edwards\u2019 family members said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.<\/p>

Police say Edwards was carrying a knife and ran towards officers before they opened fire.<\/p>

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Daniel Stewart said police tried to deescalate the confrontation but had no choice except to shoot.<\/p>

\u201cThey used a taser which most of our officers are equipped with,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThen attempted to use OC gas which is commonly known as pepper spray and that was not effective.\u201d<\/p>

Bystander video<\/a> shows part of the encounter. In the video, three officers surround Edwards. He appears to run towards one officer and police immediately fire three shots.<\/p>

Edwards then veers away from the police and runs away from them. The officers fire three more shots and he falls. Edwards was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>

One of the officers had minor injuries. Stewart says they are all on paid administrative leave.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Approximately 100 protesters met outside the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Headquarters, Friday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Friday night, a crowd of around 100 protesters met at the steps of the Oklahoma City Police Department\u2019s headquarters to denounce Edwards\u2019 killing.<\/p>

His niece, Ameerah Gaines, said her uncle \u201cwas loved.\u201d She said he was out selling flowers when police arrived and she believes he was scared.<\/p>

Rev. T Sheri Dickerson, executive director of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City said she knew Edwards. She called him \u201ca gentle soul\u201d and did not believe he would attack police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man who sold flowers was killed by police, Friday night. Police say he had a knife. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":33618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1324,1326,800,1325],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33627,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33617\/revisions\/33627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}