Community supporters and family gathered at Memorial Park to honor Asia Bennett, raise awareness about domestic violence and demand accountability.<\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Family, friends and community activists gathered Thursday evening at Memorial Park to remember 22-year-old Asia Bennett and demand answers in the deadly police shooting that killed her last month.<\/p>\n
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump joined Bennett\u2019s family and supporters at the vigil, where people wore purple ribbons to honor Bennett and raise awareness about domestic violence.<\/p>\n
The gathering included chants of \u201cJustice for Asia\u201d and \u201cNo justice, no peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett was shot and killed Aug. 11 by a Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office officer responding to a domestic violence call at her Arlington home.<\/p>\n
According to JSO, Bennett came outside holding a knife. Body camera video shows Bennett telling officers her boyfriend had beaten her and telling officers to kill her.<\/p>\n
Police said Bennett then moved toward an officer with the knife. The officer fired twice, striking Bennett. She was taken to the hospital, where she died.<\/p>\n
Bennett\u2019s family said she was a survivor of domestic violence and questioned whether deadly force was necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsia always had hope for things to change, things to get better,\u201d said Crystal Bennett, Asia\u2019s aunt.<\/p>\n
Crystal Bennett said she has heard people question what Asia should have done during the encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have this thought in my mind of all the people who have so many things to say about what she should have done when she came out traumatized and scared,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kiana Blaylock with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee said the group wants Bennett\u2019s name remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer name will not just be another lost name,\u201d Blaylock said.<\/p>\n
Crump said he plans to remain focused on the case and the family\u2019s call for accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re gonna be focused like a laser,\u201d Crump said. \u201cSo we can get justice for Asia, so it can hopefully help other women who are going through similar circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chance Lynch, another attorney supporting the family, encouraged them to continue holding onto hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that your rope of hope might be broken but all you got to do is reach beyond the break,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n
Members of A Mother\u2019s Cry, a group of mothers who have lost children to gun violence involving police, also attended the vigil and offered prayers for the Bennett family.<\/p>\n
The State Attorney\u2019s Office is reviewing the shooting. There has not been a final determination on whether the officer\u2019s use of deadly force was justified.<\/p>\n
Crump is scheduled to hold a news conference with Bennett\u2019s family at 8 a.m. Friday to share new details related to the shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community supporters and family gathered at Memorial Park to honor Asia Bennett, raise awareness about domestic violence and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-390221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}