Police Kill 17-Year-Old Jessica “Jessie” Hernandez Sparking Protests and LGBT Community Support

A car hits a cop, the officer is injured, police open fire at the driver. This narrative has repeated itself in Denver at least four times over the past seven months. In Park Hill, at dawn on January 26, the story played out again.

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Denver Police Department says Jessica “Jessie” Hernandez, 17, drove a stolen car toward two officers and hit one, prompting police to open fire and shoot Jessie multiple times, fatally.

A friend, who was also in the car, reported to 9 News that police shot at the car before it struck the officer.

The Denver Police Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the killing and has launched an inquiry into the police department’s right to shoot at moving cars. Chief Robert White identified the two police officers involved in the shooting: Daniel Greene and Gabriel Jordan.

As information about Jessie was made public, many in the LGBTQ community rallied. Eleanor Dewey, the director of Branching Seedz of Resistance, the Colorado Anti-Violence Program’s LGBTQ youth project says the impact of the shooting is ricocheting throughout Colorado’s queer and trans youth.

“A lot of our youth are taking this hard because it hits so close to home,” she says. “For a lot of them, what this last year has been with so much police violence … now, more than ever, our youth are totally at a loss of what to do and how to keep themselves safe. Our youth are afraid of the cops, because there is so little you can do and such little power you have in incidents like this.”

Vigils, rallies, and demonstrations have taken place across the city. Protesters demonstrated outside the District Attorney’s office, Tuesday, Jan. 27.

There, Anthony Grimes, of the Denver Freedom Riders, spoke to the press about the intersections between racism, homophobia, and police violence. Reverend Patrick Dempsey and others talked about Jessie’s death in relation to a string of police killings in Denver over the past decades.

Protesters held signs including: “Don’t shoot unarmed teens,” “Lethal Force is Terror,” and “Denver Police Hands Off Queer Youth of Color.”

After speaking with the press, protesters entered the Webb building and demanded a meeting with Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who staff said was out of the office. In a heated discussion with two representatives of the district attorney, protesters pointed out that the D.A.’s office has not prosecuted a police officer for killing since the 1990s.

After the protests at the D.A.’s Office, Denver’s Independent Monitor, which oversees investigations into the conduct of the police, announced that they would review the police department’s protocol for opening fire on moving vehicles.

Jessie’s cousin Jose Castaneda spoke to the crowd about the struggle his family will have paying for the funeral and the already tight economic circumstances Jessie’s mother lives under.

“Nobody is going to repay me for my cousin’s life.”

Jessie grew up in a house with six children and a mother who struggled to feed her kids, Castaneda says. But Jessie was the family’s joy. “[Jessie] was always smiling. It kills me because I can still see that smile,” he says.

Dewey says there has been a national call for financial support and that people have expressed interest in aiding the family. Coordination efforts are underway.

Jessie’s killing comes in the wake of the public protest against the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City. Protests against police violence have been on the rise in Denver since the police killed Ryan Ronquillo, a 20-year-old man, outside the Romero Funeral Home, during services for his friend.

Story and photos by Kyle Harris