A Cottonwood Heights day care center in between the locations of two recent auto-pedestrian crashes is rallying the community together to support the families, while raising awareness along the street.
Police response to Cottonwood Heights protest was appropriate, attorney generalâs office finds
Demonstrators have denounced officersâ actions as violent and unnecessary, while police have accused protesters of being ârioters.â
(Rick Bowmer | AP file photo) Gabe Pecoraro is led away after being taken into custody by Cottonwood Heights police officers during a march Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, in Cottonwood Heights. The protest was a March for Justice focused largely around Pecoraro s brother Zane James, who was fatally shot by police in Cottonwood Heights in 2018. | Updated: May 12, 2021, 2:39 a.m.
The Utah Attorney Generalâs Office found Tuesday that Cottonwood Heights officers who made multiple arrests â some filmed using physical and chemical force â during a 2020 protest against police violence were âmeasured and appropriateâ in their response.
The family of Zane James alleges the Cottonwood Heights police and city leaders shut down their demonstration and used excessive force in retaliation for their yearslong criticism of the police department.
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS Zane James family felt almost entirely alone after his death in 2018.
Few others had the same experience of losing a child to a police shooting, and their push for reform in their own city, Cottonwood Heights, seemed to be going nowhere, his mother Tiffany James recalled.
That shifted last year after the murder of George Floyd spurred national outcry and widespread demonstrations. With new momentum, the James family organized a march calling for justice and honoring their son s life over the weekend of what would have been his 22nd birthday.
The group of about 100 set out walking and dancing in their neighborhood on Aug. 2, but didn t get far. Patrol cars arrived and blocked the street in a scene that rapidly turned violent, with officers using batons, Tasers and chokeholds on Zane James father, Aaron James, and brother Gabriel Pecoraro.