From Qué Pasa Media Network

Family, friends and community members marched to police headquarters

Durham -. More than 200 people took to the streets of downtown Durham on Friday night to march to Durham Police headquarters demanding justice for the death of Jesus Huerta, a teenager who died mysteriously in a police patrol car Tuesday.

Shouting “Justice for Chuy”, carrying signs and headed by the Huerta family, protesters marched from the CCB Plaza in the center of the city to the Durham Police headquarters, whose parking lot was where the 17 year old youth was found dead early Tuesday morning when he was being transported in a patrol car after being arrested.

“I wholeheartedly thank everyone who came out tonight to support us and seek justice for my son,” said Silvia Huerta, the mother of the teenager that died, to Qué Pasa.

Next to the mother of “Chuy” were his four brothers, his girlfriend, other relatives, fellow High Riverside High School and dozens of community members that although not met him wile he was alive, attended the demonstration in solidarity with the family.

The march ended with at least two people arrested after some demonstrators broke windows of the police headquarters and a patrol car.

Twenty patrol cars and dozens of police officers followed the protesters during the journey through the streets of Durham to return to CCB Square where the demonstration ended.

The march came the same day the police chief of Durham, Jose Lopez, issued a statement in which he asked for patience from the community and declined to give details of the case until the completion of the investigation that is in the hands of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

The protesters, like Huerta’s relatives, demanded answers from Lopez regarding the death of the teenager who according to the official version was arrested for trespassing on private property and taken to the police station before 3:00 am on Tuesday.

However, the teen’s mother said in an interview with Qué Pasa that it was her who asked the police to look for her child after he had left the house, upset because his mother would not let him go out with his friends Monday night.

Lopez said Tuesday about young man’s death that he arrived in the parking lot of police headquarters inside a patrol car driven by officer Samuel Duncan, who heard a loud noise and jumped out of the moving vehicle, which eventually crashed into a van.

The head of the Durham Police did not specify the cause of death but Huerta’s mother and younger brothers told Qué Pasa that the same police informed them on Tuesday night that “Chuy” had been shot in the head.

Raziel Huerta, older brother of “Chuy”, asked the police to clarify how it happened because there are many questions, such as who shot the gun and who did the gun belong to.

Family, friends and community members marched to police headquarters.