WASHINGTON — Family and friends of Dalaneo Martin gathered to remember his life at a church in Northeast D.C. Thursday morning.
Martin’s loved ones held a funeral in his memory at Holy Christian House of Praise, on Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue Northeast.
Martin died March 18 after D.C. Police and Park Police officers found him asleep inside a car, they thought was stolen, in D.C.'s River Terrace neighborhood.
Body camera footage, later revealed to the public, showed two Park Police officers enter the car. When Martin woke up, he sped off with one officer still in the back seat of the vehicle. The footage then showed the officer fatally fire several shots toward Martin’s back one second after telling him to stop the car.
“Shouldn’t [anybody] take your child’s life,” said Martin’s mother, Terra.
Terra Martin added at her son’s funeral she is still trying to cope with what she lost.
“No mother should feel how I feel,” she said. “I feel empty. I feel lost. And, I got to pray that I get justice.”
Video of Martin’s death has received hundreds of thousands of views on social media.
The United State’s Attorney Office in D.C. also announced it would open a civil rights investigation into his case.
The Martin family’s attorney, Jade Mathis, reiterated Thursday her clients still want to know the names of the officers involved. She said they’ve gotten no update from Park Police. D.C. Police, the agency investigating the shooting, did not provide an update Thursday either.
“We will proceed legally on this end, as we intended to, and have our team continue our investigation internally,” Mathis said.
Mathis’ father, Judge Greg Mathis, of the TV show “Judge Mathis,” spoke at Martin’s funeral too.
He called for accountability from police.
“Death without a trial,” Judge Mathis said. “Is that what this country’s about?”
Mathis also told the crowd it is time for the United States Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to reform policing across the country.