Justice for Sahleem Tindle: Family Meets with DA Nancy O’Malley and Calls for Rally and Protest
(Oakland, CA) - On Monday, April 2, the family of Sahleem Tindle will meet with District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to discuss next steps in the fight for justice for Sahleem. At 3:30 pm, the family and community will converge at 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland. The family will meet with the DA and then join the community for a rally and protest outside of the Courthouse.
The family has been relentlessly demanding justice for Sahleem who was shot three times in the back by BART Police Officer Joseph Mateu on January 3, 2018. Mateu never identified himself as police before shooting Sahleem. Initially, the BART Police Department alleged that Sahleem had a gun in his hand at the time of the shooting, but a leaked video of Mateu’s body cam footage shows that there was no gun in Sahleem’s hand when he was killed. He was in fact engaged in a physical confrontation - protecting his children - with an unknown man who has since disappeared. There is literally no physical way that Sahleem could have had anything in his hands, let alone a firearm.
“Sahleem was there with his companion and two small children at the time he was killed,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project. “Why is the media not covering that? Who do you know that would engage in a gun battle in front of their children on the way home from a shopping trip?”
To add insult to injury, Joseph Mateu was back on the job within two weeks of the killing. That was then followed by the BART Police Department lying once again; claiming threats had been made against Mateu’s life. To date, despite the family’s repeated requests, BART PD has provided no evidence of these “threats.”
Sahleem’s mother, Yolanda Banks-Reed, and the family, have repeatedly made the same demands:
Fire Joseph Mateu
Arrest Joseph Mateu
Charge Joseph Mateu
Convict Joseph Mateu
DA O’Malley is in control of demand #3. She has the ability to charge Joseph Mateu with murder. Given her track record however, the community is concerned that once again, she will side with a killer cop rather than the community and a family in mourning.
“What if it was your child,’ asked Yolanda Banks-Reed. “I haven’t even had time to grieve my son. But we have to do what we have to do and I am going to fight.”
###