Demonstrators gathered in Oakland Monday demanding justice for Erik Salgado, a 23-year-old man who was shot and killed by CHP officers over the weekend, one block away from his middle school and one block away from where his mother lives.
“It’s not fair,” said Erik Salgado’s aunt who doesn’t have to walk far from the family home to see the growing memorial for her nephew, the latest Oakland man to die at the hands of police.
“I think attention is always good but at the same time, it’s not going to bring him back,” said Amanda Majil-Blanco, Erik Salgado’s stepsister.
On Saturday night, authorities say CHP officers opened fire at the car that Salgado and his pregnant girlfriend were in. Salgado was killed on the 9600 block of Cherry Street.
Family members say Salgado’s girlfriend – who was 4-months into her pregnancy – survived and is at Highland Hospital. Salgado also leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter.
“He was a good daddy. He’s a product of the streets as many other people are who are in that cycle of mass incarceration and police brutality and unfortunately it caught up to him too soon,” said Majil-Blanco.
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Sources told NBC Bay Area News that Salgado was behind the wheel of a stolen red Dodge Challenger, one of the many cars that looters stole from a San Leandro Dodge dealership last week.
A sales manager at the dealership could not confirm if Salgado’s vehicle was one of their own. Demonstrators say the officers involved in Salgado’s death deserve the same treatment as the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s death.
“We want them out of the force and in prison, one way ticket,” said Hoku Jeffrey from organization By Any Means Necessary.
OPD, Alameda County DA’s office and the CHP are all looking into the deadly officer-involved shooting.
