Demonstrators marched the streets of Pasco Saturday to protest the police shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes Tuesday night.
Some wore shirts that read, "Stop police brutality / It was a rock." Zambrano-Montes was throwing rocks, witnesses say, at a busy intersection before police shot him.
Adults and children marched and chanted "justicia," the Spanish word for "justice." Zambrano-Montes was part of Pasco's majority-Latino population. His family has said he was an undocumented worker from Mexico.
The agricultural town of Pasco is in the media spotlight, with the presence of television cameras and satellite trucks growing throughout the week. Martin Valadez of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce acknowledged at the march the shooting has become international news.
"I know people from all over the country," he said. "I don't want them to know about this place that I live, that I call home, Pasco, Washington, because of this. I want them to know about us for other things."
Marchers stopped to pray at the corner where Zambrano-Montes was shot. Investigators say he was not armed with a gun or knife at the time of his death. Whether he still carried any rocks is under review.
The Franklin County coroner plans to order an inquest. Zambrano-Montes' family has prepared to sue the city of Pasco for $25 million.
Speakers who took the microphone called for peaceful demonstrations throughout the day. At the end of the rally some people told the crowd through a megaphone that they had come from Seattle and asked others not to leave, but to lay down in the street.
