Source: Screenshot / Facebook
On Twitter over the weekend, users alerted to the fatal shooting of Jonathan Price, a Black man who was killed by police after reportedly attempting to intervene in a domestic violence situation between an unknown man and a woman at a Wolfe City gas station outside of Dallas, Texas.
According to KHOU, Price, a 31-year-old city employee and former athlete, attempted to stop the fight. But after he approached the couple was assaulted by the man. When officers arrived, witnesses claim Price was tased, then shot as he reportedly held his hands up.
“When police arrived, I’m told, he raised his hands and attempted to explain what was going on,” civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt wrote on Facebook. “Police fired tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they ‘perceived a threat’ and shot him to death.”
The officer who shot him, Shaun Lucas has been placed on administrative leave.
Price’s family and friends began sharing their grief on social media, saying he was beloved by all who knew him.
“And they wouldn’t let me get close to my baby. I just wanted to hold his hand and they wouldn’t let me do that,” his mother Marcella Louis said. “I just wanted to crawl over there to him.”
“That’s what he always did, tried to help others. I taught him that all the years,” she continued.
But after his photos were shared on social media, users alerted those mourning his death to a series of troubled posts Price shared on Facebook over the summer months as Black community members and their supporters marched in the face of the tragic shooting deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
On social media Price revealed that he was partially raised by two white families, preferred white women and never encountered a bad experience with police.
Because of his position, many found it difficult to rally around his death, and voiced their concerns around his mindset.
Then there were those who argued that his preferences shouldn’t matter as another Black life was lost at the hands of the police.
Price’s death and the hesitation around mourning his death harkens back to the conversations around Stephon Clark who was shot 20 times by Sacramento police in his backyard while holding a cell phone. After the shooting his old social media posts resurfaced showing instances where he wrote degrading and colorist comments about Black women.
While it’s undoubtedly tragic that another Black man lost his life to the police, Price’s social media posts show that aligning yourself with the idea of whiteness will not absolve you from death.
But his death also asks if it’s possible to place grief and mourning somewhere in the balance?
