Justice for Mario Romero!

WW photo: Terri Kay

Vallejo, Calif. — This city has faced a number of killings by police in the last year. The family of Mario Romero, one of the victims, and supporters, came out on Martin Luther King Day to protest the killings. A press release from the Justice for Mario Romero and Joseph Johnson Movement explained: “On Sept. 2, 2012, Mario Romero was approached and gunned down while sitting in his parked car in front of his home by a Vallejo police officer, identified by multiple witnesses as Officer Dustin B. Joseph (age 32). Public and court records indicate a series of multiple complaints that detail a history of unlawful abusive and questionable, to say the least, behavior of Officer Dustin Joseph.”

Cyndi Mitchell, Mario’s sister, says, “There’s a lot of questions not being answered. The police chief lied, calling Mario a parolee. Officer Dustin Joseph must be fired and tried.”

Since Romero’s death, she says, the family has been “dealing with a lot of intimidation, harassment, been run off roads, had lights shined in our faces, and constant surveillance. What people don’t understand is that Mario never got out of the car. Once they killed him, they cut him out of the seat-belt. He had been shot in the hands, wrist, face, mouth … all indicating he had his hands up.”