The family of Hunter Jessup, who was killed by the gunfire of Baltimore police officers on Tuesday, held a vigil for him on Saturday.
Family and friends met up near the intersection of Brunswick Street and St Benedict Street to honor the 27-year-old man.
Jessup had been standing on Brunswick Street around 12:30 p.m. when officers attempted to interact with him. He then allegedly took off on Wilkens Avenue.
Baltimore Police Chief Richard Worley said that one of his officers tried to tackle Jessup but fell onto some stairs. It was at that point that Jessup pointed a gun at the officer, police said.
That’s when multiple officers discharged their weapons, Worley said.
Their bullets struck and killed Jessup.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Southwest Baltimore residents filmed officers as they swarmed around the gunshot victim and shouted prayers in hopes that he might survive his injuries.
“Just keep breathing,” one woman shouted at the gunshot victim as police surrounded him. “In the name of Jesus, keep breathing.”
Neighborhood residents who knew Jessup from the neighborhood described him as your all-around good guy who was “not out to cause any trouble.”
“It doesn’t make sense that they’re harassed the way they are,” a woman who goes by the name “Free” said.
“There was no question that it was a homicide, but I had no idea what I was about to walk into when I got to that corner,” she said.
The deadly shooting marked the end of the life of a man who had interacted with officers in the past.
In 2017, Jessup was arrested after he struck a 14-year-old boy on a bicycle while trying to flee from officers following what police described as a routine traffic stop.
Jessup was 20 at the time. He reportedly bailed out of his vehicle and tried to run following the incident with the bicycle, police said.
Witnesses said that at the time of the collision between Hunter’s vehicle and the bicycle, officers did not have their lights or sirens on.
Free said he was gunned down “in a savage way with no regard for life.”
“The cops were rude. They were talking derogatory . . . There was no compassion. There was no sympathy,” she said.
Jessup’s family and friends are demanding to see what happened the day he died.
The body camera footage will show people where the stop-and-frisk started and how it turned into a deadly shooting, Jelevon Nolley told WJZ.
“We need this body camera footage,” Nolley said. “We need the body camera footage.”
Nolley said he was related to Jessup and rattled by the death of his loved one.
“They shot my brother 17 times. It’s my brother,” Nolley said. “I’m with him every day.”
