With a united chant of “no justice, no peace,” supporters of Jonathon Coronel’s family marched through the streets of Vista Saturday.
Coronel was shot by a Sheriff’s deputy last July after a short foot chase. Investigators said Coronel was in a crouched position when he raised a hand covered by a t-shirt toward a deputy who, fearing for his life, shot at Coronel.
The medical examiner's report, however, said Coronel pulled his shirt over his head, "turned his back to the deputies and started getting down on the ground."
Coronel’s cousin Clarissa Coronel said she is still mourning, but she is empowered by the support she’s received from the community, including the family of Alfred Olango.
“He was more than just my cousin. He was my brother. Anyone who knows us knows how close we were. He wasn't just a gang member like they picture him,” she told NBC 7. “He had a family. He has his daughter who he lived for, who meant the world to him, and now she has to grow up without her dad.”
She joined Alfred Olango’s family in the march Saturday.
Olango was fatally shot by an El Cajon Police Department officer last year in a parking lot in El Cajon. Olango pointed an object at officers that they later realized was an e-cigarette.
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“The mourning process lasts a lifetime,” Olango’s brother Apollo Olango explained. It's not something that goes away. It's something you're reminded of on a daily basis. He created the Alfred Olango Foundation after his brother’s death to advocate for training and policies to de-escalate police encounters.
“We take it as something that is a motivation to us, to teach people to use our pain, our hurt to be productive,” he said.
Coronel’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, saying he was unarmed when he was shot and killed.
The Sheriff’s Department is investigating the shooting. Their findings will be turned over to the district attorney’s office.
