A man sentenced to life in prison without parole for the double-murder of two teenagers used an opportunity to address the families of his victims in court on Wednesday to declare that “black lives matter” and “hands up, don’t shoot.”
The kicker: the convicted murderer, Frederick Young, is black, and his two victims, Jourdan Bobbish and Jacob Kukla, were white.
Young and his accomplice, Felando Hunter, robbed, tortured, and murdered Bobbish and Kukla in Detroit in July 2012 as the teens were attempting to buy drugs.
Their bodies were discovered in a field in East Detroit after a search which lasted several days.
Given a chance to respond to the families’ impact statements during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Young made a statement which shocked the courtroom.
Young said:
“I’d like to say sorry to the families of Aiyanna Jones, Michael Brown, Eric Garner. And I want to apologize to them for not being able to get justice for their loved ones who was murdered in cold blood – and in respect for the peaceful protest, I want to say hands up, don’t shoot. Black lives matter. That’s it your honor.”
Jones was a seven-year-old girl from Detroit who was shot and killed during a 2010 police raid. Brown is the 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. Garner died after being choked and arrested by a Staten Island police officer last summer. All were black.
Young’s references to “hands up, don’t shoot” and “black lives matter” are to rallying cries that emerged from the protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner. Some witnesses claimed that Brown held his hands up in surrender and yelling “don’t shoot” when he was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Other witnesses disputed the claim.
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