A crowd of about 70 supporters of Cole L. M. Turner and his family marched to the Bloomington Police Department on Sunday in protest of his death.
Bloomington Police fatally shot Turner in response to a call about an armed suspect in the 700 block of Fairmont Drive on Feb. 25. Turner, of Normal, died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the McLean County coroner.
Turner’s family was in attendance, including his mother, Kelsey Woodrum. She said the grief she has dealt with because of his death and funeral has only become more difficult.
“It actually got much harder after the funeral. I didn’t realize it was all going to hit me more after that time,” she said. “I laid him to rest, and now his body is going to be gone forever.”
Woodrum said the only thing she believes she can do now for her son is to fight for him.
“I can’t just cower away and act like nothing happened or anything like that. This is my child and I’m going to do whatever I can,” she said.
Woodrum said the protest was only one way of fighting for him and that those who support Turner have multiple ways they can show that.
“It’s very important to him and to me that for just people to show their face here today. To just even show that they care,” she said. “You don’t even have to do the march, you don’t have to do the protest. Driving by, waving, you know, offering support, donations, anything like that it’s all wonderful, it’s all acceptable.”
Woodrum said Turner was her “wild child." He loved the warm weather, being outdoors and playing basketball with his friends, his mother said. She also described him as a smart and selfless young man, saying that everyone was his friend.
What Woodrum stressed most of all about her son is that he was still a child — a 15-year-old who made mistakes like everyone else. At the time of his death, Turner was attending the Regional Alternative School in Bloomington.
“As far as his issues in life, we were working through them. We were in therapy, he’s been through a lot of trauma in his life … he was doing much better with everything, he was on the right path,” she said. “Everybody makes mistakes, but if we could all just, you know, put the hate down for a second and realize that Cole is, was a 15-year-old child … he’s just like everybody else.”
The protest was organized by the local group Punks Against Tyranny led by co-founder Oriah Matich, a sophomore at Normal West High School. She described the group as a grassroots movement dedicated to mutual aid and community benefit.
“We are here for justice for Cole. We believe that severe injustice was done to that boy, and we believe that he deserves justice,” she said.
Matich was connected with the family and once she met Woodrum, they planned the protest together and the family’s input was key.
“I met Kelsey through Cole’s girlfriend who found out about the protest and reached out to me … so me and Kelsey started talking and they’ve been a huge help with this entire protest-planning process,” she said. “We put it all together with the family in mind and with the family in cahoots with us.”
Together, Punks Against Tyranny and Turner’s family made a list of demands they had for the Bloomington Police Department including the release of body cam footage, all internal communications, and the names of the officers involved.
“So regardless of what comes out about what happened with Cole and why it happened, we want ultimately for the BPD to come out and say what they’re going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Matich said.
As the group marched from the McLean County Museum of History to the Bloomington Police Department, they brandished signs, chants and speeches all in support of Turner and his family.
The protesters were not able to speak with any police officers during their march. The Bloomington Police Department has referred all media inquiries about the case to Illinois State Police, which is leading the investigation — a standard when local police use deadly force.
