Hi there,

If you think Democracy Now!’s reporting is a critical line of defense against war, climate catastrophe and authoritarianism, please make your donation of $10 or more right now. Today, a generous donor will DOUBLE your donation, which means it’ll go 2x as far to support our independent journalism. Democracy Now! is funded by you, and that’s why we’re counting on your donation to keep us going strong. Please give today. Every dollar makes a difference—in fact, gets doubled! Thank you so much.
-Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

Residents Protest Police Killing of 93-Year-Old Black Woman in Texas

HeadlineMay 09, 2014

More than 100 people gathered Thursday in Hearne, Texas, to protest the fatal police shooting of a 93-year-old African-American woman. Witnesses say Pearlie Golden, known as Ms. Sully, was shot at least five times outside her home on Tuesday. Authorities say Golden had a gun when a police officer arrived following a reported dispute with her nephew, who was trying to take away her car keys after she failed a driver’s test. The officer involved, Stephen Stem, previously shot dead an African-American man in 2012, but was cleared by a grand jury. Stem has been on the police force for less than two years. Protesters spoke to the local Eagle newspaper.

Resident: “Everybody treated fair. We went through the same thing last year and didn’t nobody do nothing about it. We just need something done. You can’t keep doing it and don’t nobody have consequences for their actions. We want something done, that’s it. Ain’t no threats or nothing being made out. We just want something done. We need help.”

William Foster III: “We’re thinking about justice and for us to find out what is going to be done about an injustice. That’s what we’re thinking about.”

Protesters: “What do we want?” “Justice!” “What do we want?” “Justice!”

Stem has been placed on paid administrative leave. Hearne Mayor Ruben Gomez says he will recommend the officer be fired at a city council meeting on Saturday.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top