Last Thursday afternoon, beneath sprays of crepe myrtle and strings of barbed wire, hundreds of people gathered outside the walls of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JSPO) across the river from New Orleans. In the heat of the Louisiana sun, protesters carried signs with the names of men killed by the JSPO, whose cases they contend have not been subjected to proper investigation. The familiar call and response of “no justice, no peace” and “hands up, don’t shoot” were chanted in between prayer and demands for #JusticeforDesto.

On May 27 — two days after the murder of George Floyd — local welder and rapper Modesto Reyes was shot down by police following a traffic stop in Marrero, a suburb of New Orleans. Though an incident report has yet to be presented, a statement made by the JSPO confirms that a car chase took place, followed by a foot chase. According to an eight-second video from a taser camera pulled by one officer, when Reyes tripped and then attempted to get back up, an officer yelled “gun,” before shots were fired at Reyes, ultimately killing him.

The protest, which swelled for three hours and shut down traffic underneath the Westbank Expressway, is reported to have been the first large-scale demonstration in a New Orleans suburb. Participants expressed anger and despair at the death of Reyes, as well as a spate of violent incidents carried out by the JSPO in recent years that have attracted little attention in the national media. Many were also present to demand that the JSPO begin wearing body cameras, a policy practiced by the New Orleans Police Department, but eschewed by the adjacent JSPO.