Local Families Affected By Police Killings Join D C Rally To Press For Cases To Be Reopened wgbh.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wgbh.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Demonstrators from the Mass. Action Against Police Brutality rally march along Seaver Street in Boston on Tuesday night. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Several hundred people gathered in Franklin Park to mark the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd and to call for local officials to do more to combat police brutality.
Since Floyd s death last year, his killer, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, was found guilty of murder. Across the country, government officials, businesses and schools have promised reforms to fight racism, increase equity and hold perpetrators of racial violence accountable.
Locally, that s meant a host of police reforms, including a new statewide commission to oversee policing. Boston now has an office charged with investigating police misconduct.
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In early 2020, Juston Root’s condition was deteriorating.
Diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder as a young adult, the 41-year-old wasn’t taking his medicine, and those around him were concerned. His family felt that he should be civilly committed. His psychiatrist described him as “actively psychotic with poor self care,” according to a Jan. 6, 2020 evaluation. “He is not at acute risk and cannot be hospitalized against his will at this time but given his history we believe hospitalization is very likely.”
On a brisk, damp morning one month later, Root drove himself to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, part of the Boston medical center complex that also houses the Massachusetts Mental Health Center he was in need of help. A security guard was the first person to interact with Root and radioed in a description of him after a bizarre conversation, noting that Root had a transparent object that looked like a gun. The Boston police arrived, and fewer than 10 minutes later