About 300 marchers in Powhatan protest Taliaferro verdict
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
A march to protest the verdict in killing of Tahliek Taliaferro heads down Old Buckingham Rd. towards the Powhatan Courthouse Sun. March 29, 2009.
Hundreds of placard-carrying protesters circled the Powhatan County Courthouse lawn yesterday, decrying as unjust a trial this month that failed to produce murder verdicts in the shooting death of popular high school athlete Tahliek Taliaferro.
About 300 people -- from 84-year-old Margaret Harris-Manning, to 12-year-old Justin Daniels -- marched peacefully a half-mile along Old Buckingham Road before circling a lawn bearing a statue that honors Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.
"This was off-limits for us growing up," said Harris-Manning, the first and only black person elected to the county Board of Supervisors. "Nothing good was going to come from coming up here," her parents told her as a child.
Voted out of office in 2004 after her district was reconfigured, she said, Harris-Manning yesterday protested a court verdict that she said was reminiscent of a time she hoped had disappeared.
"Years ago, we were taught to be silent," said her sister, Gladys Morris, who lives in Chesterfield County. "Not after this."
A 12-person jury with one black member last week found Ethan Parrish, 25, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Taliaferro's shooting death and guilty of assault and battery in the wounding of another youth. A second defendant, Parrish's cousin, Joseph "Joey" Parrish, 18, was found guilty of the same two charges and an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Ethan Parrish fired six shots June 24 from a semiautomatic rifle toward a car carrying Taliaferro as the vehicle slowly passed the stopped car occupied by Parrish and his cousin. Ethan Parrish testified that he was frightened after seeing a gun and only wanted to scare Taliaferro and others as he held the weapon outside the car from where he was sitting.
After an earlier encounter with Taliaferro and his friends, Ethan Parrish said he knew there would be trouble. He readied the assault rifle and attached an 83-round drum clip. Parrish said that as he fired the gun, the weapon "rose up on me" and he lost control of it, sending rounds into Taliaferro and a friend instead of toward the ground as he intended.
But Stephanie Reynolds, who was driving the vehicle the Parrishes were in, testified that Ethan Parrish had said he was going to "smoke" Taliaferro.
The jury recommended an 11-year sentence for Ethan Parrish; his cousin will be sentenced by a judge.
"What you are seeing here is something that has never happened in Powhatan," said King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia Conference NAACP. "There are people here from across Virginia."
Khalfani said his organization and others are planning discussions with the FBI about the jury selection process, what may have influenced the jury, and facts of the case that may not have come to light.
"It will be a slow, incremental process," said Rovenia Vaughan of the Powhatan NAACP.
The march was attended by Taliaferro's mother and father and other family members, including grandfather James Taliaferro, 68, who said his grandson's death is painful but familiar. He said two cousins of his died decades ago under circumstances that have never been explained. One was found in the James River, the other, on a roadside.
About 50 white people joined the march.
"There should be more. Where are they?" asked one, Kathy Eheart, an amputee who attended in her wheelchair. "What happened at this courthouse is not right."
Gail Hairston, 54, one of three blacks on a jury pool of more than 40 people, who was not chosen as a juror, said she felt compelled to attend yesterday's march. "It's real sad to me because that jury didn't represent the people. Suppose the shoe had been on the other foot," she said of the racial imbalance.
But Richard S. Johnson Jr., a deacon at Solid Rock Baptist Church in Richmond, stressed that the racial overtones of the case will not resolve deeper injustices.
"We want to send a message that injustice affects all people," said Johnson, who in his prayer to the assembled marchers blessed the Parrishes. "We want to send a message that all people can be better."
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or
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Reader Reactions
Mr E, for someone complaining about the lack of firearms knowledge in these postings you certainly should check your facts as well. First, not every AK-47 is capable of selective fire. There are semi-automatic only variants of this weapon that still carry the AK-47 model name. The selective fire version is controlled under the National Firearms Act of 1934, and that particular weapon has nothing to do with this case. Also, you make a pretty generic statement about possessing a fully loaded high capacity magazine. While a prior felony conviction would certainly make possessing the weapon illegal, it is not “more illegal” because of the capacity of the magazine. The “Assault Weapons” Ban expired in 2004 and the regulations on high cap magazines went with it…
how much longer are people (blacks, whites, whatever) going to sit around and pull the victim card. we need to realize that every branch of our government, state and federal, is corrupt and always will be. if honesty were introduced into this country it would simply collapse. if we marched and protested every time something didn’t go our way we’d never get anything done. we need your tax dollars, get back to work!
Mr. E: I am aware that the AK47 is a selective fire weapon. That’s why I said it is “capable” of full auto fire.
My point was that Parrish did NOT use an AK47; he used a MAK90—a semi-automatic only firearm.
Understandable, but it’s funny how I never saw a newspaper or television news reporter in my old neighborhood as the residents protested when someone was injured or killed. I guess those incidents don’t sell enough papers or attract enough sponsors. Sad!
The comment was made below that:
“Where did an 18 year old felon get a rifle? Who procured it for him, and are Powhatan sheriff’s investigators pursuing that angle? Why is Times Dispatch letting that angle drop? Is the NRA so powerful that we cannot even investigate illegal gun transactions?“
According to news reports, Ethan Parrish, the shooter, is 24 years old and had no criminal record. One must be 18 years old to purchase a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun.
It was not the seventeen year old that had the gun, it was a 24 year old MAN, not child. Everyone seems to be confused about the age of the KILLER, he is not a child, again 24 year old MAN. He should not have even been hanging out with his seventeen year old cousin doing drugs and drinking all day in the first place. Why is he not being charged with providing drugs and alcohol to his seventeen year old cousin, not that it matters but I am tired of hearing about the killer being a child. Justice was not served in this case.
Mr. E - Being on the job is my frame of reference - not the media.
Randy-I somewhat agree with you, but is your knowledge about the “lack” of protest by blacks for black on black incidents based on fact or “media statistics”. Keep in mind that you only know what they want you to know. The Powhatan case, because of it’s racial composition, seems to be a hot selling point for journalists. As I previously stated, I do agree with you to an extent but the alleged rarity of “white on black” crime appears to attract the interest of many more people. My issue is not about the racial makeup. It’s about the use of an assault weapon that if it had been used by a person of color in the same capacity as the Powhatan incident, it would have definitely brought about the maximum amount of Federal punishment and that’s not including the possession of a fully loaded high capacity magazine.
There’s is still one thing missing in this story, and in most of the stories about shootings. Where did an 18 year old felon get a rifle? Who procured it for him, and are Powhatan sheriff’s investigators pursuing that angle? Why is Times Dispatch letting that angle drop? Is the NRA so powerful that we cannot even investigate illegal gun transactions?
I don’t know the circumstances surrounding this case. I think the victim should have never followed the defendants in his car. He should have used better judgement. There could have been five guys waiting for him to gang up on him. But insted there were two who shot him.
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