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On opposite ends of California, two women who have never met are united by grief and purpose.
This month, Kathleen Bils laid a memorial stone in a flower bed on the San Diego street where a sheriff’s deputy shot her son one year earlier. Some 500 miles north, at a marina on the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay, Addie Kitchen recently held a memorial in the city where a police officer killed her grandson.
“I want people to understand that our children are important to us and that we want justice,” said Kitchen, a retired prison guard. “We want the officers to be held accountable.”
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Wanda Johnson, left, Addie Kitchen and Stevante Clark at a celebration of life held for Steven Taylor on the one-year anniversary of his death, at the San Leandro Marina on April 18, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters
On opposite ends of California, two women who have never met are united by grief and purpose: seeking justice for family members who were killed by police officers. Kathleen Bils’ son was shot by a San Diego sheriff’s deputy, and Addie Kitchen’s grandson was shot by a San Leandro police officer both of whom are facing criminal charges under a new state law limiting when police can use deadly force. But beyond those two cases, it appears the close