State, local NAACP leaders demand change within the South Boston Police Department

(Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

HALIFAX (WSLS 10) - "No justice, no peace," shouted around a dozen people as they protested through South Boston today on the third anniversary of Linwood Lambert, Jr.'s death.

They retraced the path he took on May 4, 2013 when he was arrested at his hotel room at the Super 8, taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation, and then to jail where he ultimately died.

Recommended Videos



"This cannot happen again," Halifax-South Boston NAACP President Kevin Chandler said at a news conference before the protest.

Chandler, Virginia NAACP Executive Director Jack Gravely, and several others held the conference outside the Halifax County courthouse to detail changes they want to see made to the South Boston police department.

"We're calling for training of all officers in CIT training, crisis intervention training," Chandler explained.

They also want a moratorium placed on the use of tasers until officers can be more properly trained and more studies can be done on the affect of tasers and they want tasers classified as a deadly weapon.

"To see, hear, and read what happened to you is heartbreaking," Lambert's sister, Gwendolyn Smalls, said at the news conference as she read a letter that she wrote to her brother.

Lambert's sister was the only family member at the conference. She read a letter she wrote to her brother. She says seeing the investigators completed report, which was released yesterday, is painful.

"With people out here supporting us," Smalls said after the conference, "we'll try to make it through. It's been rough. It's been real rough."

Gravely emphasized during the news conference that although the county has decided not charge the three officers involved in Lambert's death, the case is far from over.

"We have requested and are receiving an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We will keep our powder dry until that report comes in. There is also going to be a civil trial."

Lambert's family has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city as a result of Lambert's death.