Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms condemned violent demonstrations that have taken place in her city after an 8-year-old girl who was shot and killed over the weekend.
“Enough is enough,” Bottoms, a Democrat who is in contention to be Joe Biden’s running mate, pleaded during a press conference late Sunday evening. “We have talked about this movement that’s happening across America and this moment in time when we have the ears and the interests of people across this country and across this globe who are saying they want to see change. But the difference in this moment in time with the Civil Rights Movement — the Civil Rights Movement, there was a defined, common enemy. So, we’re fighting the enemy within when we are shooting each other up on our streets.”
“You shot and killed a baby,” she added. “And there wasn’t just one shooter; there were at least two shooters. An eight-year-old baby. If you want people to take us seriously, and you don’t want us to lose this movement, then we can’t lose each other.”
Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, says “Enough is enough… you shot and killed a baby.” during a press conference today addressing the shooting death of an 8-year-old girl last night in southeast Atlanta. @11AliveNews pic.twitter.com/IqlzWQlFfY
— Natisha Lance (@NatishaLance) July 5, 2020
She was referring to Secoriea Turner, 8, who authorities said was shot and killed Saturday when her mother drove a car through an area with illegally placed barricades not far from the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed by police last month.
Secoriya Williamson, Turner’s father, gave an impassioned rebuke of the protests that have followed the death of Brooks.
“They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own,” he stated. “They killed my baby because she crossed a barrier and made a U-turn? You killed a child. She didn’t do nothing to nobody. Black Lives Matter? You killing your own. You killed an 8-year-old child. She ain’t did nothing to no one of y’all. She just wanted to get home to see her cousin. That’s all she wanted to do.”
