This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Protesters in Pasco, Washington heeded police and community calls for calm on Saturday, following the fatal shooting by officers of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an unarmed 35-year-old Mexican national, earlier this week.

Around 1,000 people gathered in Volunteer Park, outside Franklin County Hall and about nine blocks away from where Zambrano-Montes died, for what organisers claimed was one of the largest rallies in recent Pasco history. Attendees were mostly from the city’s Hispanic community but protesters also came from across the state.

Police in Pasco brace for more protests over shooting of Mexican national Read more

Speakers from local and state levels and including members of the clergy, many of whom addressed the crowd in Spanish, constantly reminded protesters to be peaceful, saying anyone wearing masks or carrying offensive signs should desist. The city of Pasco, it was pointed out, had facilitated the protest, even providing portable toilets free of charge.

Nonetheless, passions ran high. Sandra Barragan, a cousin of Zambrano-Montes, held back tears as she told the Guardian: “We have not yet had the time to cry. We are angry, we are very angry but we also know that getting angry and violent is wrong.

“Everyone said it [the police action] was not right, there could have been a different method. We still can’t believe this … we lost a family member.”

Statements by speakers and placards carried in the crowd linked Zambrano-Montes’ death to those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York last year, which sparked national protests against perceived police brutality when the officers involved were not indicted. Among placards reading “Justice for Antonio” and “It’s protect and serve, not obey or die”, one carried the message: “Ferguson is everywhere”.

“We have to continue and be part of what the nation wants,” said Barragan. “We want justice, we want change.”

The rally turned into a march, as in mid-afternoon winter sunshine protesters made their way to the corner of 10th and Lewis, the site of the fatal shooting.

“Black lives matter, Hispanic lives matter,” the crowd called, adding the phrase that became synonymous with protests in Ferguson: “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

The rally was led by members of the Zambrano-Montes family, who chanted “El pueblo unido jamás sera vencido” (“The people united will never be defeated”).

Notably, uniformed police officers stayed well away from the march.

On Friday, officers leading the criminal investigation into the incident confirmed that Zambrano-Montes was not carrying a firearm or knife when he was shot dead as three officers chased him across a busy intersection.

The revelation was condemned by the Mexican government.

Mexico condemns 'disproportionate' use of force by US police in Pasco shooting Read more

Video of the incident, uploaded to YouTube, appears to show Zambrano-Montes running away from officers and raising his hands momentarily before he is shot. Police maintain he had been throwing rocks at police and the public and that non-lethal action, including the deployment of a taser, had failed to subdue him. It is unclear if Zambrano-Montes was holding a rock when he was shot.

Erica Alaverez, 37, a Pasco local attending Saturday’s protest, like many others said she had seen the video online.

“What happened here was a complete injustice and would have been so to anyone of any race,” she said. “It’s not because he was latino, it wouldn’t have been because he was black. It was an unarmed man without a weapon shot down in the street in front of everybody.

“There could have been a lot more consequences, other people dying because [the officers] were shooting at random.”

A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of outside police agencies from the Tri-Cities area is investigating the incident. It said it had identified dozens of witnesses and would review police dashcam footage and eyewitness video during an investigation that would take weeks to complete. A hotline has been created with further witnesses encouraged to come forward.

“Those three officers are going to have to live by their decisions,” said Sergeant Ken Lattin of the Kenniwick police, a spokesman for the SIU. “Was it right? That will come out later on.”

Franklin County coroner Dan Blasdel has indicated he could begin an inquest into the death, which would see a panel of jurors examine evidence and potentially recommend charges to the prosecutors’ office.

On Friday, Zambrano-Montes’s widow, Teresa de Jesus Meraz-Ruiz, and his two teenage children announced that they were suing the city for $25m, arguing the police used excessive and unneccessary force.

Video of fatal shooting of Washington man throws doubt on police account Read more

Zambrano-Montes’s death is the fourth fatal police shooting in Pasco, a majority Hispanic city of 68,000 residents, in the past year. Prosecutors cleared the officers responsible in all three previous cases, which included one officer from the neighbouring Benton police force.

One of the three officers involved in the Zambrano-Montes shooting, Ryan Flanagan, a nine-year patrol veteran, was one of the subjects of a civil claim in the Washington district court from 2012. It was alleged then that Flanagan had used excessive force on a 30-year-old Spanish speaker, Maria Davila-Marquez. The case was settled out of court in 2013.

Asked on Thursday for his reaction to Flanagan’s involvement in the Zambrano-Montes shooting, Davila-Marquez’s lawer, Vito de la Cruz, replied: “I was horrified, but at the same time I wasn’t surprised.”

At Saturday’s rally, Kathleen Taylor, the American Civil Liberties Union’s director for Washington state, said: “Fleeing from police is not sufficient reason to be shot, let alone killed.

“There is a saying that if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Use of violent force must not be the only tool that our police officers have. They need the skills and training to enable themselves to respond in different ways.”