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LEANORA MINAIUhuru members announce plans to protest and invoke the memory of a 1996 police shooting that led to civil unrest.
ST. PETERSBURG - The Uhuru organization Tuesday called the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old motorist an "outright assassination" and vowed to mobilize the community through demonstrations.
Uhuru members will be at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office at noon today to protest the shooting of Marquell McCullough by two sheriff's detectives.
"I think we should have this community up in arms," Uhuru leader Omali Yeshitela said during a news conference attended by McCullough's mother and grandmother.
Uhuru members drew comparisons to the St. Petersburg police shooting of TyRon Lewis in 1996. That fatal shooting came after a traffic stop and sparked two nights of civil disturbances.
"Our community has not even recovered from the assassination of TyRon Lewis, and now we have this," said Chimurenga Waller, president of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg.
McCullough was shot by the sheriff's detectives Sunday after they said the teen rammed their cruiser and tried to run them over.
The detectives tried to pull McCullough over in the area of 38th Avenue N and 34th Street because they thought he had been involved in a drug deal. Sheriff's officials said McCullough was carrying 30 pieces of crack cocaine.
Pearlie McCullough, 52, the teen's grandmother, said deputies didn't have to shoot.
"He wasn't shooting back," she said.
Bland Crumbley, 18, echoed her sentiment. Why not shoot the tires, he asked.
"He'd still be living today," Crumbley said.
Tim Goodman, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman, said deputies are trained to shoot to kill when lives are in danger.
"You don't shoot to injure or disable somebody or you don't shoot to disable a car," Goodman said. "You have to eliminate a threat."
- Leanora Minai can be reached at minai@sptimes.com or 727 893-8406.