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‘They Want Riots’ Says Family Spokesperson As Outrage Continues In South Bend

By Justin Hicks, IPB News | Published on in Community, Government, Law
Family members of Eric Logan, city council members, and others sit on a panel at a radio station to discuss the investigation of Logan's death. (IPBS News / Justin Hicks)
Family members of Eric Logan, city council members, and others sit on a panel at a radio station to discuss the investigation of Logan's death. (Justin Hicks/IPB News)

Family and community members continue to question the official version of events on the fatal police shooting of Eric Logan early Sunday morning. Many are frustrated that Sgt. Ryan O’Neill’s body and dashboard camera were not turned on.

City council members, family, and other community leaders held a public discussion at a local radio station and church Tuesday afternoon where they expressed outrage about the lack of video footage and the transport of Logan to the hospital by police car and not by ambulance.

“The community is sick and tired of South Bend police,” Vernardo Malone, the family’s spokesperson, said. “They want riots. They want to march.”

Several at the meeting also aired their suspicions about the ongoing investigation by the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit and called for an independent investigation from the Department of Justice.

The county prosecutor says body and dashboard cameras are triggered only when officers turn on their emergency lights, travel at a high rate of speed, or manually press a button. O’Neill did none of these.

Regina Williams-Preston was one of the council members there.

“No body cam, no dash cam, no any kind of cam in this age of technology? That’s problematic,” she says.

However, Williams-Preston also revealed there may have been at least one camera that was watching.

“And so I hear that someone had a phone,” she says. “Thank god, somebody had a phone. And so I look forward to the truth coming out.”