People rally outside Fargo City Hall to demand justice for Shane Netterville

Netterville was not armed when he attempted to flee. People are demanding the body cam footage be released, but according to the chief, that is not likely right now.

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Family, friends and supporters of 28-year-old Shane Netterville are calling for action at Fargo City Hall after he was shot and killed by Fargo Police Officer Adam O’Brien last Friday after a call about three people slumped over in a vehicle.

People say they’re feeling a mix of emotions: grief, frustration and anger.

Their message was loud and clear. Police shouldn’t be the judge, jury, and executioner.

“I don’t know all the details of our brothers past. I don’t know everything but I do know he was a resident of this community for the past 10 years, so why pawn that off. He was home here and another thing, when it comes to our population, our only populations, any one of them has a vehicle. Do you think they might sleep in that vehicle overnight? I do,” said Lillian Jones, Fargo.

Members of Native American Tribes, leaders from Black Lives Matter and the African Socialist Party spoke about police killing people of color, giving them flashbacks of deaths like George Floyd.

“I want this family to get peace. I want this family to know what happened to Shane,” said Faith Dixon, BLM leader.

They are demanding that the body cam footage from Officer O’Brien be released. They want local politicians and Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski to take action.

“We sat in this building for months and months trying to create a board so when these things happen, we can get body cams released in 72 hours. Today makes 96 hours from the time that he died, and we were told this morning unfortunately, we can’t see the tape. It needs to be transparency and accountability that they’re doing the right thing, but when we’re asking for that, we can’t get it,” said Dixon.

“If Officer O’Brien shot him to stop him that qualifies as an illegal search and seizure,” said Jones.

They feel people of color are facing police brutality in our community and organizers are trying to address that.

“I want you to notice the emptiness. There’s just a few people here represented to stand here and remember and hopefully hold to account our public officials in answering for the loss of our brother here,” said Jones.

“And if you are a city official, you should want the same thing too because believe it or not it, could be your so, it could be your daughter,” said Dixon.