Candlelight vigil held in memory of Richard “Pedie” Perez III in Richmond
on September 15, 2014
Family and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of Uncle Sam’s Liquor Store in Richmond in memory of Richard Perez III, 24, who was shot and killed there during a confrontation with a Richmond police officer in the early morning hours of Sept. 14.
Perez, or ‘Pedie,’ as he was known in the neighborhood, became the first person killed in an officer-involved shooting in Richmond since 2007. The vigil began at 8 p.m. Sunday and lasted into the night as mourners wrote personal messages, lit candles and embraced one another over the loss of a man many there called “family.”
7 Comments
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the story goes that he rob the store then fighting with a cop, and yet you people cry over that, stupid.
It’s been 36 days and I’m just seeing the story about Pedie’s candle-light vigil, held on the night of September 14,2014 about 20 hours after Pedie died. A “6 year veteran” Richmond cop, shot Richard Pedro Perez lll who was called ‘Pedie’ because we had 3 Richards, thus, nicknames, and that nickname stayed with him, even as he grew up in Pinole and in the neighborhood where Pedie has worked for the past 6 years, out of our work-yard we have been located in, since 1985, 4 years before Pedie was born… 1 and a half blocks from the liquor store, which also sells food, etc., like any convenience store does, and Pedie was well known in the store and the surrounding neighborhood…the store that Pedie went to, very late, close to midnight, on September 13, 2014 in an extremely intoxicated state. The cop came, and he took Pedie outside, and hand-cuffed him, and made him sit on the cement, while he ran a check on him to see if he had any outstanding warrants. Pedie had none, so the cop un-cuffed him, and then the cop decided to re-arrest him…that’s when Pedie resisted…so, the cop shot Pedie, KILLING him. The cop LIED, claiming as the reason why he shot him is: that Pedie “tried to reach for his gun”…the store video shows that the cop and Pedie were at least 5 feet apart, when he drew his gun and he shot Pedie 5 times, not the “3 times” that were reported. The cop was not wearing a taser, pepper-spray, baton, OR any of the NON-LETHAL equipment ‘tools’, that policemen are supposed to be wearing when they are on duty…which he could have used to sub-due Pedie, if he felt so threatened that he needed to sub-due him. I wish that Pedie had had a warrant, because he would have been taken to jail…and he would be alive, today. This evening, I saw the first comment and I hope that the person who wrote that very UNTRUE comment, has learned, since…that Pedie’s MURDER, never had anything, whatsoever, to do with Pedie “robbing the store”, OR for him committing any type of a crime. Pedie’s only ‘crime’ is: he was intoxicated…and now, he is dead, while the cop is off, ‘on PAID administrative leave’. This cop should NOT be a cop, ever again…and he should be prosecuted and convicted for MURDER. in my opinion. Patricia Perez
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The Richmond Police murder a drunk guy and he only gets a candlelight vigil? Where is the outrage? Where is the dignity of a Ferguson, Missouri where people rose up to oppose police murder? Perez was intoxicated. What was the officer doing approaching a drunk with his gun easily grabbed by a drunk guy? Who believes the cop’s story?
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