Bridge Blocked by Group Protesting Pasco Police Shooting

PASCO, Wash.
Feb 21, 2015, 10:02 PM ET
Associated Press

A group protesting a police shooting in Pasco, Washington, took over a bridge crossing the Columbia River.

The Tri-City Herald reports that about 75 people were in the group as night fell Saturday. Police had yet to intervene as the crowd chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" and other slogans.

The Feb. 10 killing of Antonio Zambrano-Montes — captured on cellphone video by an onlooker — has sparked calls for a federal investigation

Police have said Zambrano-Montes did not have a gun or a knife.

The killing was the fourth by law enforcement officers in Pasco in less than a year. It has roiled this fast-growing agricultural city of 68,000, where more than half the residents are Hispanic but few are members of the police force or the power structure.

On Friday, the Mexican government said it expects Zambrano-Montes' body to be returned to his hometown in Michoacan state, Mexico, late next week, according to McClatchy Newspapers ( http://bit.ly/1D4tbVE .)

Mexico's consul in Seattle, Eduardo Baca Cuenca, made a special trip to Pasco on Friday to meet with family members and community leaders.