Audrey DuBose at Ohio Families March: ‘I’m feeling their pain’

© Cara Owsley/The Enquirer Audrey DuBose, center, marches with Bishop Jerome McCarry during the Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality march through Downtown on Friday. DuBose’s son, Sam DuBose, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by white former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing during a 2015 traffic stop.

Dozens gathered at Cincinnati City Hall and marched to Piatt Park on Friday in response to the grand jury decision in Louisville, Kentucky, regarding Breonna Taylor’s death.

Taylor was killed when police were serving a warrant on her apartment and a shootout broke out.

Speakers came from across the state to share their experiences as part of the Ohio Families Unite Against Police Brutality march.

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The names and stories of people killed in police interactions in Cincinnati are what the community needs to rally behind, said Karla White-Carey, a board member of the group who introduced the speakers.

Audrey DuBose, the mother of Sam DuBose, spoke under the park’s shade as a crowd listened, some holding Black Lives Matter signs. Sam DuBose was killed in 2015 by former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing. Tensing was tried twice for murder. Both trials ended in hung juries.

“For all the mothers that the police have killed their child, I know the pain,” Audrey DuBose said. I’m feeling that pain, I’m living through it every day. And I just want to say call Jesus.”

She said police need to walk with the Lord Jesus rather than walk in fear when they are carrying a gun.

“Because the more scared you (are), the more of us are going to die,” she said. “I mean, a scared man will kill you in a minute.”

She said every day is hard for her, and to stand up every day she relies on Jesus.

“The police got too much authority,” DuBose said. “They’re the ones carrying the guns, and they’re scared. Why are they walking in so much fear?”

She said there has been no justice for her son.

“My son did get a trial,” she said. “It was a joke, because who’s going to convict the police?”

Dione Burney, whose son Kesharn Burney was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Montgomery County, said she wanted people to keep in their prayers all of the mothers and families who have lost a loved one.

Some of the mothers in the group have lost a child to gun violence unrelated to police actions, she said. She asked people to vote and to know about who they vote for.

“We have a lot of laws and bills that we’re trying to pass,” she said. “Please support us. You do not want to be standing here – that was my only child.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Audrey DuBose at Ohio Families march: ‘I’m feeling their pain’