Heaven Heinzer-Clark, a 15-year-old student on the Iron Range, traveled more than 70 miles south to stand in the morning rain and protest outside of the St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth.
She had a lot on her mind. She has been watching the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis cop charged in the death of George Floyd. And she just learned that police officers in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright on Sunday.
She considered the publicity surrounding the deaths of these two men and thought about the general lack of media coverage or interest concerning the death of Estavon Elioff, a 19-year-old Hispanic man from the Range city of Virginia, who was shot and killed by two white St. Louis County Sheriffâs deputies in Mountain Iron on Dec. 5, 2020.
A Native American woman accused a police officer of harassing her and pulling her over without cause while she drove in town. A Black man claimed multiple violent run-ins with the police. A second Black man originally from Chicago accused law enforcement of singling him out while he was fishing next to several white people on a lake.
âThatâs a classic case of profiling,â said the third man identified as Jay. âBeing up here I want to be part of the change. I donât want to be part of the problem. But how can I be part of the change when Iâm already deemed a criminal?â
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Co-directors of VEMA, Seraphia Gravelle and Nathaniel Coward are pictured outside the groupâs new storefront at 12 West Lake St. in Chisholm. The two, along with Elizabeth Robinson founded the group last year to work against racism and injustice, and to ensure accurate and adequate representation of all people in the community.
Submitted photo
Based in the Sixth Judicial District, the Iron Range Equal Justice Committee, in partnership with Voices for Ethnic and Multicultural Awareness, is hosting an upcoming listening session meant to cultivate relationships by talking about racial issues.
The event, named âConversation with the Courts,â is scheduled to run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 6.
Seraphia Gravelle, a co-founder of VEMA, said over the phone Thursday that she was invited to join the committee âto bring people of color from the community to the tables to tell their stories in regards to their experiences with the justice system on every level.â She described how she agreed to join the event, because she thought âthis was a great idea as far as citizens to understand the justice system and for people working in the system to hear their stories.â
The stateâs top law enforcement agency has completed its investigation into the fatal shooting of Estavon Dominick Elioff in December in Mountain Iron by two sheriffâs deputies and started handing over findings to the St. Louis County Attorneyâs Office for review.
The turning over of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehensionâs findings was confirmed Wednesday morning. The investigation remains open during the review and the details are not made public per state law, said BCA spokeswoman Jill Oliveira.
Elioff, 19, a Hispanic and white man from Virginia, was fatally shot while allegedly fleeing from sheriffâs deputies Ryan Smith and Matt Tomsich, who are white, in the Mountain Iron woods last month.