They call themselves “one big ass family” at the apartment complex where an unarmed man named Ryan Twyman was shot multiple times by Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies. The residents of the South Bay Villa units lost one of their own, they say, and now they are holding vigil and demanding answers.
“We don’t want to call it a protest,” a neighbor, Ceddy Mack, said on Friday. “We’re calling it a rally for Ryan. [... ] We just want our rights to be respected the same way we respect their job.”
Mack sported T-shirts that read “It Could Have Been Me,” a slogan that has become a hashtag and rallying cry for Ryan Twyman’s survivors. Several of those gathering donned one of the shirts. For them, Twyman is now another unarmed black man killed in Los Angeles unjustly by people meant to protect and serve. They bemoan the lack of media coverage on their friend's death.
“The way they opened up the door and shot at him, they could have done it to anybody. That’s why I feel like it could have been me. Everybody feels that way,” Mack told L.A. Taco.