The Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matter group excluded white people from a forum Sunday to discuss the fatal police shooting of 41-year-old Angelo West.

The group posted on Facebook that the “community meeting will be a People of Color ONLY space. Thank you for respecting the wishes of community and Angelo West‘ family.”

West was shot dead Friday night in Roxbury after he shot Officer John T. Moynihan in the face at point-blank range, police said. Officer Moynihan has since been moved out of intensive care and is expected to recover.

The group’s exclusionary policy incensed Joao DePina, whose brother Michael was gunned down in Dorchester last summer, the Boston Herald reported. He stormed out of the Black Lives Matter meeting Sunday after he said he was confronted for saying the discussion focused too much on the shooting and not a platform to improve police and community relations, the Herald reported.

“I came in here to basically say to them we can’t jump on this issue and automatically say the police are wrong,” Mr. DePina told the Herald. “We’re segregating our own selves. How can you have a meeting and say, ‘I don’t want white people in it?’ There’s plenty of white people that are behind our issues and our matters, so how can you close the door?”

Daunasia Yancey of Black Lives Matter Boston said the group’s white supporters were not alienated by the exclusion, and “respected the community and how they want to be supported.”

“We will have a response when we are ready as an organization, as a community,” she told the Herald.

Ms. Yancey said the group has not yet formed a position on Friday’s shooting, which she said will be released soon along with any protest plans.

“Deep thanks to those who came out to our community meeting, held each other in love, and re-committed to the work of Black liberation. It is our duty,” a group member posted on Facebook.

On Monday, the group said a member was arrested “shortly after our meeting yesterday. He is safe and well-loved. Thank you to those who mobilized to support him through detention.”

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