SAN ANTONIO – More than 100 demonstrators, many of them students, gathered in the hot afternoon sun Thursday in San Antonio to protest police brutality.
Demonstrators marched along Culebra Road to the parking lot at Taft High School, where Justin Howell once roamed the halls.
Howell, a 2018 graduate of Taft, was seriously injured May 31 when police fired bean bags into the crowd of protesters during a demonstration outside Austin Police Department Headquarters.
“It’s wrong and there’s no other explanation for it,” said Billie Billington, who was among one of the marchers Thursday.
The rally was organized by Devin Garza, 16, who said that she wanted to give young people, many who were afraid to attend protests in downtown San Antonio, a chance to demonstrate.
“We have voices, too, and deserve to be heard,” Garza said.
Billington praised Garza and the other marchers.
“These kids are out here in this hot sun, pouring out their heart and soul, trying to hear them and hear their cries and hear their pain,” she said.