Family wants answers after Brooklyn Center cops kill man, 24

Memorial for Edmond Fair
Edmond Fair's family has identified him as the man shot and killed by the police in Brooklyn Center on Friday. Family members and friends released balloons in his memory near the Interstate 694 ramp where he died on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013.
MPR Photo/Rupa Shenoy

The family members of a man shot by Brooklyn Center police on Friday are calling for a swift and thorough investigation into his death.

The family of Edmond Fair, 24, of Brooklyn Center said that police have confirmed he died after he was pulled over near an Interstate 694 ramp in a traffic stop. Police say that Fair struggled with officers and was shot.

Family and friends gathered near the scene on Saturday afternoon to pray. Fair's sister, Gena Giselle-Fair, said there was no reason for police to shoot him.

"You are trained to apprehend people and subdue them," Giselle-Fair said. "You have a Taser, you have mace, you have handcuffs. You don't shoot and kill nobody. I'm so tired of the police killing these black men. We already got enough killing from other young people -- we don't need the police hunting us down like we wild game. We are people, too."

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Fair's friends said that just last week, he had attended a rally in north Minneapolis after the shootings of a toddler, a teenager and a pregnant woman.

A friend of Fair's, Tycell Holliday, said whatever Fair did, he should not have been shot.

"My dude ain't do nothing to deserve what he got. He ain't done nothing to nobody in this world to deserve what he got," Holliday said. "And I bear witness to that. I done more dirt than he have. I should have been that person before he should have been that person!"

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said it is investigating the shooting.