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Dozens protest fatal shooting by police

(MINNEAPOLIS) -- Nearly 100 people gathered Wednesday afternoon in front of Minneapolis City Hall to protest the death of Alfred Sanders, a 29-year-old Minneapolis man who was fatally shot by police last week. Authorities said Sanders was driving erratically, including driving on sidewalks, before he pulled into an alley in south Minneapolis and was blocked in Nov. 1. He sped his car toward police officers. Four Minneapolis officers and one Minneapolis park police officer fired several times. Mel Reeves, who organized the protest, said Sanders’ killing is part of a disturbing pattern of police killing people who suffer from mental illness. Besides Sanders, who was found to have bipolar disorder, Reeves talked about Barbara Schneider, who was killed in her Uptown apartment in June. The protesters held signs and chanted “No justice. No peace. Prosecute the police.” Lasonderia Rogers, a friend of the Sanders family, brought several posters displaying pictures of Sanders taken at the morgue. They showed many wounds on his body. Sarah Baker, Sanders’ aunt, started to cry when she saw the posters. “He wasn’t a bad person,” she said. “He was a good father. Kids in the neighborhood looked up to him.” The shooting is under investigation by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. (iSyndicate; Star Tribune; Nov. 9, 2000). Terms and Conditions: Copyright(c) 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.