Police Shooting Raises Questions Over Black Man’s Gun Rights

fatal police shooting of Donovon Lynch

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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Leaders in the Black community of Virginia Beach called Wednesday for a federal investigation into the fatal police shooting of a Black man, saying his right to carry a gun for protection was ignored during a night of violence earlier this year on the city’s oceanfront.

“The Second Amendment does not work when it comes to African Americans,” Carl Wright, an activist and former local NAACP chapter president, said at a news conference. “He was a legal gun carrier. And yet his life was taken. There’s no justice.”

That concern was among several raised a day after a special grand jury found that a police officer, who is also Black, was justified in fatally shooting Donovon Lynch. Lynch’s family and community leaders also pushed back against what they said were coded words by authorities that painted Lynch as a dangerous Black man.

“He was a great young man,” said his father Wayne Lynch, who has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit. “He did everything he was supposed to do. He didn’t break any laws.”

Lynch, 25, had played football and graduated from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. His father said he carried a gun because he had a security business.

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