When Sean Monterrosa became another Latino killed দ্বারা police, his sisters fought back

 Ashley and Michelle Monterrosa took a deep breath and looked toward a group of mothers and siblings who understood the outrage and sorrow that led them to this moment. A few feet away, dozens of photos of people killed by police covered the plaza. A photo of their brother, Sean, stood right in the middle.

“We want justice for Sean, and we want that justice to mean that this can't happen to anyone anywhere else,” Ashley Monterrosa, 21, said standing on a stage in front of the San Francisco City Hall building earlier this month.

“And best believe we're pushing to be the last family affected by the Vallejo Police Department.”

A week after George Floyd was killed last year, the Monterrosa sisters drove from hospital to hospital in the Northern California city of Vallejo, struggling to get answers about the well-being of their brother after Sean’s girlfriend called them in the middle of the night crying. Several hours passed before they learned that Sean had been shot and killed by a police officer in the parking lot of a Walgreen’s store. Police said the officer mistook a hammer in his pocket for a gun.

The 22-year-old was just one of more than two thousand Latinos who experts estimate have been killed by police or died while in law enforcement custody in recent years. They are often left out of the debate over police brutality. Since Sean’s death on June 2, 2020, his sisters have set aside their grief to push for police reform out of love for their brother. But they are also fueled by anger over the decades of police brutality in the Latino community — something that persists to this day with the recent deaths of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and Mario Gonzalez Arenales in the nearby Alameda, California.

By forming bonds with long time activists and grieving families from communities of color around the United States, the Monterrosa sisters have emerged as part of a new wave of Latinos claiming their seat in the fight against police brutality.