Household of Luis Garcia, shot exterior East Excessive, desires safety in faculties

The household of Luis Garcia returned Friday to the Metropolis Park Esplanade, a paved highway that runs in entrance of Denver’s East Excessive College and loops into the park, for the primary time for the reason that 16-year-old was fatally shot there in February.

They famous the presence of Denver police on the college — a safety measure that was absent when Luis was shot whereas sitting in his automobile, parked on the Esplanade. Denver law enforcement officials didn’t return to East till a month and a half later, after one other taking pictures wherein an East scholar shot and injured two deans inside the college.

“All of the adults in cost which might be alleged to make college protected failed my brother,” Luis’ 20-year-old sister Jovana Garcia stated at a press convention with the household’s legal professional Friday. 

“No sort of safety or safety. However that’s not the worst half. The worst half is that weeks after my brother handed, there was an incident the place two different adults have been injured. Injured, not useless. After which they wished change. Was Luis’ life not sufficient?”

The household has given Denver Public College discover that it plans to file a wrongful demise lawsuit towards the district, stated legal professional Matthew Barringer. The discover additionally names the college board, which voted in 2020 to take away law enforcement officials from Denver faculties.

Courtesy of Reid Neureiter

The homicide of Luis, a gifted soccer participant whose father described him as “the happiness of our residence,” stays unsolved with out an arrest. Police have stated it appeared the gunshots that hit Luis have been fired from one other automobile.

Luis’ father, Santos Garcia, stated that if police had been inside East in February, with their patrol vehicles parked out entrance, “I feel perhaps my son would nonetheless be right here with us at this time.”

When the household requested why there was no safety on the college, Garcia stated the police advised them that the college board didn’t need officers arresting college students or ticketing for issues like medication. 

“They’re taking good care of these children, however who’s taking good care of our children?” Garcia stated. “The children that go to high school, that they work, that they really do sports activities. The great children. 

“Who takes care of them?”

In eradicating police from faculties, the board cited a want to disrupt the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately impacts college students of shade. Black college students have been extra doubtless than white college students to be ticketed and arrested in Denver faculties.

After the 2 deans have been shot in March, the college board quickly suspended its ban on police. East Excessive and 12 different campuses have college useful resource officers by way of the top of the college yr, and the board is anticipated to debate quickly whether or not to completely elevate the ban.

Garcia stated his household want to see the additional safety stay.

“We don’t need 100, 200 policemen,” he stated, “however we wish some sort of safety so the scholars really feel protected. We don’t need them to concern. We simply need them to really feel protected.”

Friday’s press convention was the most recent in a sequence of weekly occasions hosted by Mother and father – Security Advocacy Group, a gaggle that fashioned within the wake of the March taking pictures. It was additionally the primary time that a lot of Luis’ members of the family spoke publicly about his demise.

Melanie Asmar / Chalkbeat

A number of members of the family described Feb. 13, the day Luis was shot. Luis’ father recalled his final dialog with him that morning, wherein he advised his son to have a beautiful day. 

Cousin Omar Bobadilla, 17, remembered talking with Luis 20 minutes earlier than he was shot. It was Omar’s birthday, they usually have been planning to hang around later.

Luis’ sister Jovana recalled how DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero, who she known as “a stranger to us,” got here to the hospital and requested to see her brother. 

“The entitlement he needed to even ask, when not even his siblings have been allowed to see him,” she stated. “That was the final time I personally noticed him present up for my brother.”

Luis’ 20-year-old brother, additionally named Santos Garcia, stated he by no means desires one other household to expertise what his household has. “You are feeling misplaced,” he stated. “You are feeling a gap. And I simply need a change in who makes the choices and for individuals to take accountability.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver Public Faculties. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.