Vigil for slain youth demands release of cop video

Independent-Mail via AP/Ken Ruinard

Marking two months since Zachary Hammond, 19, was shot and killed by Seneca, South Carolina, cop Mark Tiller in a Hardee’s restaurant parking lot, a few dozen supporters held a vigil there Sept. 26 and demanded video of the killing be released.

“We have to demand justice,” Traci Fant from Greenville-based Think2xTwice.org, above, between Angie and Paul Hammond, Zachary’s parents, told the vigil. “All lives matter. Zach may have made some mistakes in his life, but who hasn’t made mistakes? Everyone deserves justice.”

Tiller claims he fired twice because Hammond, who is Caucasian, was trying to run him over while fleeing a drug sting. But an independent autopsy shows Hammond was shot “from back to front.” The official autopsy has not been released and police and local prosecutors have refused repeated requests to release the cop’s dashboard video. A civil lawsuit filed by the teen’s parents says that Tiller shouted, “I’ll blow your f-----g head off” before he fired.

Hammond was on a date with Tori Morton, 23, the alleged target of the sting. She has been charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

His parents have held press conferences, organized several protests and reached out to Black activists.

“The answers we have gotten about Zach’s death, we have gotten through our own efforts,” Angie Hammond said at the vigil. “It means so much to know that people are standing with us.”

—SETH GALINSKY