Oakland police officer kills again

On Sept. 20, an Oakland cop shot 20-year-old Gary King Jr. twice in the back. The shooter, Sgt. Pat Gonzales, already

Gary King speaks out on behalf of his son, Sept. 24. Photo: Felix Barrett

has a record. He shot and wounded a man in 2006 and killed another in 2002. Gonzales is a police firearms instructor and SWAT team member.

King Jr. had just left a corner store when Gonzales stopped him—supposedly because he was a possible “person of interest” in a crime—tasered and harassed him before fatally shooting him in the back. When King Jr. was lying on the ground, bleeding, Gonzales cuffed him.

The police department has fabricated—and the corporate media has faithfully parroted—an empty myth to rationalize the killing. The cops claim King Jr. was armed and reaching for his weapon before he was killed.

But King Jr.’s parents and community members are fighting back. On Sept. 24, over 100 people gathered at Oakland City Hall to protest the killing and demand justice.

“My son didn’t deserve to be brutally murdered this way,” Gary King, 52, said. “Gary is a good boy, and he didn’t hurt anybody and he was well-loved.”