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To: HOME DEPOT, EXTRA SPACE STORAGE, Oakland Police Department, Emeryville Police Department
RELEASE ALL THE TAPES! JUSTICE FOR YUVETTE HENDERSON
Release ALL the tapes! Yuvette Henderson reportedly left Home Depot with a head injury and was chased by Emeryville police before she was killed within feet of Extra Space Storage's surveillance cameras. Surveillance videos from Home Depot and Extra Space Storage are currently in possession of the Emeryville and Oakland police. OPD permitted the family to view some of the tapes leading up to Yuvette’s murder, but the two most critical videos of her being assaulted in Home Depot and her murder outside of Extra Space Storage are still being withheld. We demand that all videos containing the shooting and any other actions leading up to and subsequent to the killing of Yuvette Henderson be made available to the family and their chosen representatives.
Why is this important?
The lives of Black women are consistently devalued, criminalized, and abused by police in the United States. In the case of Yuvette Henderson, this abuse extended to murder. She is not alone; Tarika Wilson, Yvette Smith, Rekia Boyd, Aiyana Stanley-Jones—just to name a few—have all been killed by police.
In the early afternoon of Tuesday, February 3, 2015, Yuvette Henderson, a 38-year-old mother of four children and one grandchild, was shot and killed by the Emeryville Police Department on the Oakland-Emeryville border of California.
Officers shot Yuvette Henderson after responding to a report from Home Depot regarding an alleged theft where the suspect appeared to be armed and had suffered a head injury, requesting an ambulance.(1) Eyewitness accounts of the shooting contradict the statements released by Emeryville police. Witnesses say they saw Yuvette with both hands in the air, waving down a bus when she was shot and did not report seeing her with a gun. Police state that they asked Yuvette Henderson to drop her weapon and, when she refused, shot and killed her. Police have never stated that Yuvette Henderson pointed a gun at them. Yuvette Henderson fired no shots.(2)
One of the officers was wearing a body cam at the time, which was turned off during the shooting. He remembered to turn it on AFTER they killed her.(3) Yuvette sustained a head injury while inside Home Depot, yet the events leading up to this incident have been obscured because Home Depot, Oakland PD, and Emeryville PD have refused to release any related video footage. Furthermore, Yuvette was shot within feet of Extra Space Storage’s surveillance cameras, the tapes from which are also being withheld from the public with the police claiming that the surveillance video system in this brand new storage center was “broken” on the day was killed.
Why did Yuvette leave Home Depot with a head injury and what happened during the moments before she was shot by a military assault rifle? We believe that in order for there to be a just investigation, the videos of her shooting and anything leading up to it must be publicly released. On February 21, Anti-Police Terror Project, Asians4BlackLives, and Xicana Moratorium Project activists shut down Emeryville Home Depot by locking down several entrances to the building. They remained there for five hours—the length that Yuvette was left lying on the street—demanding answers about her murder.
Justice for Yuvette! Join us in putting pressure on Emeryville Chief of Police James, Home Depot, and Extra Space Storage to immediately release ALL the video footage related to the shooting of Yuvette Henderson.
1. Black Lives Matter activists shut down Emeryville Home Depot for 5 hours, demand answers in police murder of Yuvette Henderson. San Francisco Bay View 2-23-2015
http://sfbayview.com/2015/02/black-lives-matter-activists-shut-down-emeryville-home-depot-for-5-hours-demand-answers-in-police-murder-of-yuvette-henderson/
2. "Anti Police-Terror Project Holds Rally and Vigil for Yuvette Henderson" Anti-Police Terror Project 2-20-2015
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/20/18768819.php