(gentle music)
- My name is Addie Kitchen.
I'm Steven Taylor's grandmother.
I raised Steven from the
time he was about eight.
He stayed with me until
he was about 22 or 23.
The only difference that
me not being his mom
is that I didn't birth him,
but I raised him and he
knew how much I loved him.
I think when he got to
about the fourth grade,
we realized that he was ADHD.
So that was his real big issue
all the way through high
school was focusing.
But he really wasn't a
bad kid, he didn't fight.
The guy was very, very bright.
He could look at something and fix it.
His mother came back into his
life and they lived together,
and I think that's
where the breakdown came
because she was still using
drugs and he was using drugs
and it just didn't work out.
Probably by the time he was 30,
he became homeless because
he couldn't live with me
because he was using drugs.
His mom had got into a program
and I begged him and begged him,
you know, Steven, please
get yourself in a program
so that I can help you
if you want my help.
He says, "I don't need your help.
I'm not asking you for your help.
I love you, Granny, but this is my life."
The picture that they sent
me with him bleeding to death
on this dirty floor in Walmart by himself
was more than I could even imagine.
And I try to wash it out of my
brain, but it's still there.
I still see it.
I have problems sleeping at night.
I have problems eating.
I have my good days and my bad days.
I have black days and light days.
Sometimes it's just overwhelming
to believe that police would shoot him
or any other human being like that.
And I keep saying being
Black, being homeless, being,
having mental issues, is that
a reason to execute someone?
I mean, is that what we do to people?
Do we murder people
because they're homeless,
because they're Black?
That's exactly what happened.
My understanding is that
the police was in there
less than 60 seconds and shot him.
There was no de-escalation,
nobody tried to help him.
And that's what I would like to see done
in all of the cities
throughout the country
is learning how to de-escalate
because we have such a large
population of homeless people
and they have issues.
They have issues.
So we need to know how to deal with them
without killing them.
Treat them like they're human beings.
And I think that would
curtail a lot of the instances
where people are being
murdered by the police.
I'd hate to think that
Steven died in vain,
that we'd be able to
get them to understand
that there are other
ways to deal with people
that have mental issues.
And I think de-escalation
is very important,
and mental health is also
very, very important.
When I moved out of San
Leandro and left him,
I felt that I had abandoned him,
and I have to continue to tell
myself that I really didn't.
That he was an adult.
And there really wasn't
anything that I could do
to change who he was.
And so I'm fighting myself every day,
telling myself that I don't think
there would have been
anything I could have done
to keep him from being murdered.
(gentle music)
Say his name, Steven Taylor.
Say his name, Steven Taylor.
Black Lives Matter.
Steven Taylor, say his name, say his name.
Steven Taylor, Steven
Taylor, say his name.
Justice for Steven Taylor.
Justice for Steven Taylor.
Say his name.
Steven Taylor.
Stephen Taylor.
Steven Taylor.
(gentle music)
