National Civil Rights Group to Focus on Kendrec McDade Shooting

In what may be the first of many actions by national civil rights organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has backed local branch leader Joe Brown in a letter demanding Pasadena police answer questions about the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Kendrec McDade.

Brown hand delivered the letter to city officials Monday.

The letter asks the police and city officials to make public a number of facts, documents, and records related to the March 24 shooting.

This past weekend, Brown said that a number of national organizations are preparing to become involved in the Pasadena shooting – both civil rights organizations and major media.

“We do have a lot of outside organizations, outside of this city, all over this country, who having been pleading with me to come into Pasadena,” Brown said Saturday. “It’s spiraling out of control.”

News reports have fueled comparisons to Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black teenager shot to death by a volunteer Neighborhood Watch officer in Florida.

In the Pasadena shooting, police officers were responding to a 911 report that two men armed with guns had just committed a nearby robbery. The officers pursued one suspect, McDade, and say he suddenly came at one of the officers while reaching for his pants waistband. Both officers opened fire, killing him.

Tonight, the NAACP Pasadena branch will join the Pasadena Community Coalition and a number of churches in staging a solidarity rally for both Trayvon Martin and Kendrec McDade at Pasadena City Hall from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.