You don’t taze a man on the ground, you don’t shoot him either (unless he’s black); I figure that was his thought process. I remember finding out. Jalen, Cierra, and I were in the car leaving school with Gigi (my grandmother) when Nana (my other grandmother) called,  she picked up through on bluetooth that goes through her car so that Nana was on speaker. It had been a completely normal day. I went to school (didn’t enjoy it) and was headed to my Nana’s house until my mom picked me up when she got off of work. As soon as Nana spoke I could tell something was wrong, there was trouble, pain in her voice “It’s Eric...He’s dead” she said. In disbelief Gigi asked Nana to repeat herself and she said it again “He’s dead, they shot him, the police.” for a few seconds there was shock, nobody spoke and all that could be heard was the surrounding cars driving along the road. When Gigi finally spoke she asked when they did this to him and why. Nana explained that it happened that day; but there was no reason behind it. With both hands behind he was no threat, but I suppose that didn’t matter much like his life in the eyes of the officer. He shot anyway.

Eric is my cousin, but I can only remember meeting him a few times when he came to Michigan for a week. He was lively, he cracked jokes, he was the kind of man who could liven anybody’s day just by his presence and I’ll never forget that about him. His passing didn’t hit me the hardest because we weren’t all that close, but somehow I still felt a loss when I found out. Noticing how it affected those around me who were close to him wasn’t exactly an enjoyable experience either. After everyone knew there was a sense of desolation that was hard to ignore, though everybody tried.  

Me, my Mom, and a few other family members drove to Oklahoma for the viewing a few weeks after. The drive there from Michigan took us about 14-15 hours but we didn’t stop often so most of us slept a lot of the way there. When we finally got to Oklahoma we stayed with Cousin Andre (Eric’s brother) and his wife Shilah. The first day consisted getting settled, the next two days were days of relaxation, and the fourth day was the viewing. I didn’t expect to cry, I figured I wasn't emotionally involved enough to cry, but while I was standing outside of those doors something came over me and I couldn’t stop. Soon after that everybody went into the room and a few people got up and either spoke about Eric or went to go view him one last time. I sat in that back and observed as the ceremony went on, but the scene of the room is a blur. The press showed up at the end of the viewing, they wanted to interview and speak to Eric’s son and Andre.

After we left we went back to Andre and Shilah’s house, we packed our bags back up, said our goodbyes, and got back on the road. The ride back seemed to be just about as long as the ride there, and we were back home by nightfall. After that things just kind of went back to normal, and we continue to live in loving memory of Eric.