Protesters Demand Special Session on Police Shooting

SAN DIEGO —  Several hundred protesters, most of them African American or Latino, were accompanied by former Mayor Maureen O’Connor as they staged a downtown march Friday to demand an emergency session of the City Council to discuss the fatal police shooting of former pro football player Demetrius Dubose.

“I have read the 300-page report,” said O’Connor, referring to the district attorney’s investigation that concluded this week that the shooting was justified. “There are issues on both sides that deserve to be addressed. I’ll tell you right now--I think there should be dialogue.”

A spokesman for Mayor Susan Golding said later that the mayor wants to receive a formal request for a meeting before making a decision. By City Charter, only the mayor can schedule an emergency session.

O’Connor, a political figure in San Diego for more than 25 years and mayor from 1986 to 1992, declined to take sides on whether two police officers were justified in shooting Dubose during a scuffle in which he resisted arrest and may have advanced on the officers while swinging their nunchaku martial-arts weapons at them.

O’Connor said she decided to become involved in the controversy out of concern that relations between the police and minority communities have deteriorated because of inattention from city officials since she left office. A Democrat, O’Connor found her political stronghold in the city’s blue-collar and racially diverse neighborhoods.

The 90-minute march, watched closely by scores of police officers, remained peaceful despite sometimes fiery rhetoric. Some protesters say that police were guilty of racism by trying to handcuff Dubose, who was initially seated and cooperative while being questioned.

“They provoked a man to his death,” said Abdur-Rahim Hameed, president of a black contractors association. “This is a callous, brutal murder.”

The two officers, who have been assigned to desk duty since the July 24 incident, were set to return to patrol this weekend. The slaying is under scrutiny by the Police Department’s internal affairs division and its shooting review team, and a report will be forwarded to the city’s civilian review board.