Wilmington, Del. — Community members marched through Wilmington for over 6 hours on the evening of July 24 after gathering outside the home of the family of Kadir Skinner, 19, who was shot and killed last month by a currently unidentified Wilmington Police Department officer during a foot chase as eyewitnesses said he was running from a dog. Advocates have been organizing ongoing protests in the city since the police killing, coordinating with the Skinner family and their legal team in the pursuit of more transparency from government leaders, police reform measures, and accountability from the WPD officers responsible for the death.
At the march on July 24, protestors blocked rush-hour traffic on Interstate 95 for approximately 20 minutes, following through on their chants to “shut it down” and holding signs that read “Justice for Kadir Skinner” and “Hold Killer Cops Accountable.” The Delaware Call witnessed police officers pepper-spray at least one woman and threaten multiple other people on the highway with the same treatment.
After marching through Trolley Square while bars and restaurants were full of the Friday dinner crowd, protesters stopped at the home of Attorney General Kathleen Jennings. Advocates and family members of Skinner repeatedly demanded the attorney general take action and arrest the shooter. Organizer Mahkeib Booker stated over his bullhorn that police officers in Delaware have too much leeway to be “judge, jury, and executioner.”
In response to community calls for transparency, the Delaware Department of Justice published selections of redacted Body-Worn Camera (BWC) video of the shooting on July 16. The videos were released “as a matter of public interest” by the attorney general and were met with multiple responses expressing mourning, shock, and hurt.
“Kadir Skinner should be alive today,” wrote State Sen. Marie Pinkney shortly after the release. “Our community is grieving, and public trust has been broken. Despite this, I believe that we have a responsibility to Kadir’s family to fight for accountability.”
The BWC footage release followed a July 12 rally and march by community activists with multiple members of Skinner’s family in attendance, who called for the footage to be released. Kristina Kelly, one of the rally organizers, “absolutely” believes that the action “played a significant role” in the decision to release the footage.
“For weeks, the community and Kadir Skinner’s family had been asking for transparency with little response,” said Kelly, a Delaware police reform activist. “When dozens of people came together to peacefully demand accountability and make it clear that this issue would not simply fade away, it sent a powerful message that the public expected answers.”
Kelly is hopeful the continued community attention in response to the killing will lead to longer-term systemic change.
“The release of the footage was an important victory,” she told the Call, “but the mission has always been bigger than one case. We’ll continue fighting until every family can expect transparency, every community can demand accountability, and no one has to organize a rally just to learn the truth.”
At a press conference on July 21, local faith leaders and Skinner’s family announced that they were organizing an August 24 rally for justice in collaboration with a national social justice community organizing group. The planned date of that Wilmington rally will mark the two month anniversary of Kadir Skinner’s death.