ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A group of protesters rallied Saturday afternoon where a teenager was shot and killed by Roanoke County police officers four years ago.
18-year-old Kionte Spencer died near the intersection of Electric Road and Brambleton Avenue in February 2016. Spencer’s death has received renewed interest from the public due to ongoing protests surrounding police violence.
“George Floyd, he brought more light to Kionte’s case, which is a good thing,” said Carl Spencer, Kionte’s older brother. “At the same time, he’s still dead, so it’s nothing to be happy about.”
The officers who shot Spencer have not been identified or charged in his death, and the full dashcam video of the incident has never been released to the public. A petition asking the Roanoke County Police Department to release the video collected nearly 20,000 signatures at the time of the vigil.
“We’ll never know what happened until they release the raw, unedited video footage,” Carl Spencer said. “We’ve been fighting for years...I just feel like I have to do something.”
A follow-up rally in Kionte Spencer’s memory is planned for Monday afternoon at Booker T. Washington Park in Roanoke.