Memorials for Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo were reportedly dismantled by police officers in Bakersfield, California on Saturday (April 17) during a vigil for the police-involved shooting victims.
Residents in the area gathered at a memorial for a vigil for Wright and Toledo when officers starting taking down cardboard signs.
According to a report by TMZ, a video posted to TikTok shows Bakersfield police officers taking down the signs, removing cardboard pieces, before walking back to their patrol car.
The police department told the outlet that the memorial was a fire hazard and had to come down.
“This would not be the first time a vigil went up in flames so things have to be removed to avoid a fire,” the department reportedly told TMZ. In the video, a vigil attendee can be heard asking the officers not to remove the signs.
Twenty-year-old Daunte Wright was killed by former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer Kimberly Potter shot him during a traffic stop on April 11. The city’s former police chief, Tim Gannon, called the shooting “accidental,” before resigning.
Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old living in Chicago, was fatally shot by officers on March 29. Body camera footage released last week showed the teen raising his hands before officers shot him, refuting a statement by a city prosecutor that Toledo had a gun in his hands when officers fired their weapons.
Memorials for victims of police violence have been erected nationwide as protests have continued since Wright’s death and the release of the footage of Toledo’s killing. Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter and was released from jail after posting a $100,000 bond.
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