Protesters block traffic along 78th Street
TAMPA (FOX 13) - Activists protesting the shooting death of an unarmed man took to the streets again on Monday, this time periodically blocking traffic along 78th Street in the Clair-Mer area east of Tampa.
Chanting, "No justice, no peace," the demonstrators hoped to bring attention to the death of Lavonia Riggins, who was fatally shot by Hillsborough County deputies when they were conducting a drug-related search of his home back on August 30.
"We are all out here to make sure that the officer goes to jail. We are destroyed. It is a sad sad tragedy,” said Carniellius Riggins, the brother of the man killed.
Deputies say Riggins made a sudden move for his waistband, but no gun was found on the 22-year-old.
"Our whole family wants answers,” said Carniellius Riggins. “We don't understand what happened. We want to know."
Protesters have hit the streets daily since, complaining that his death is just the latest in a line of unarmed black men being shot by law enforcement.
“It is an epidemic that is happening without accountability. We have to start resisting it. We should just be treated like every other human being," demonstrator Krystal Brown told FOX 13.
Brown drove two hours to march.
Her ex-husband, Marlon Brown, died in 2013 after he fled a traffic stop and was run over by a police officer in DeLand, Florida.
The officer was fired, but was not criminally charged.
She defended the blocking of roads.
"It inconvenienced our lives, when you took our loved ones away, it totally inconvenienced us. It stopped us right in that moment. We want everybody else to feel that inconvenience that we are feeling on a daily basis."
Monday, deputies were standing by but not interfering with the roughly 30 activists, who were carrying signs demanding "Justice 4 Lavonia Riggins."
The State Attorney’s Office, meanwhile, says it will determine if the shooting was justified. The deputy is currently on paid administrative leave.
"I have been with the sheriff's office for 25 years, I grew up here, and I take our investigations very seriously,” said Col. Donna Lusczynski of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.