Weeks after his head was slammed against pavement by a Broward Sheriff’s deputy, Delucca “Lucca” Rolle joined chants denouncing police brutality.
The 15-year-old student at J.P. Taravella High School helped lead a nearly 100-person march Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, which was at least the second demonstration since the April 18 incident that sparked outrage across the country.
“Our voices will be heard, and justice will be served,” Rolle, joined by his mother Clintina, chanted with the crowd.
About a half dozen Fort Lauderdale police cars escorted the demonstrators as they marched down Sistrunk Boulevard to the New Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Last month, Rolle was pepper-sprayed, punched and had his head slammed against pavement by white Broward Sheriff’s deputies — Deputy Christopher Krickovich and Sgt. Greg LaCerra. The black teen’s nose was fractured, his attorney said.
The altercation came after Rolle tried to recover the cell phone of another teen who was being arrested after a student fight. A witness caught the incident on video, which has been widely shared on social media.
Sheriff Greg Tony suspended the two deputies, but Sunday’s rally included calls for them to be criminally prosecuted.
“We will not stop until those officers are fired and charged,” Broward/Fort Lauderdale NAACP president Marsha Ellington said. “We will remember the choices [Tony] makes when it comes to justice for Lucca.”
Tony has said his office is still investigating the incident.
Yolanda Daley, a Fort Lauderdale resident who went to Sunday’s rally, said the Sheriff’s Office has been “too quiet” about the incident. With children of her own, she said the deputies should be reprimanded further.
“No one else should be able to do that and get away with it,” Daley said. “If a parent can’t do that, there’s no way that another human being can take my child and do them that way.”
Rolle did not speak outside of the march Sunday, but his lawyer Benjamin Crump did.
“To do an unarmed child like that? That’s a crime,” Crump said.
Crump rattled off names of other unarmed black people killed or brutalized by police including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Latasha Walton and Philando Castile. Crump has represented the Martin and Brown families.