Family of Zachary Bear Heels marches his final steps for a sixth straight year
Bear Heels died while in Omaha Police custody in 2017.
Bear Heels died while in Omaha Police custody in 2017.
Bear Heels died while in Omaha Police custody in 2017.
The family of a man who died while in Omaha Police custody gathered Sunday, six years after his death.
The family of Zachary Bear Heels says he was stranded in Omaha, a city hundreds of miles from home, and experiencing a mental health crisis when police were attempting to arrest him.
Sunday, they walked the same four-mile path Bear Heels took in 2017, his last moments on Earth.
"He was lost, needing help. He was just wanting to get back home," Nicole Benegas with the Bluebird Cultural Initiative said.
The Great Plains Action Society says police officers used excessive force.
"They tased him 13 times, " Mahmud Fitil said. "When they turned him over, it looked like he was not alive anymore. They dragged him by his braids, he certainly was not conscious. And they leaned him against the wheel well of a vehicle."
Now, calling on each other to speak out so that what happened to Bear Heel doesn't happen to more Native American people.
"And we fail our fellow community members who will also fall victim to the violence of untrained, scared police officers," Fitil said.
"All OPD officers received Native American cultural sensitivity and mental health training after the Bear Heels incident. Officers continue to receive yearly cultural sensitivity training and additional training in mental health response and use of force policy," Omaha police said in a previous statement.
His family feels not enough has been done.
"To our understanding, all three of those officers are still currently serving in the Omaha Police Department, today," Fitil said.
"They see us as a threat, we've been a threat for 500-plus years. We'll continue to be a threat because our voices can't be silenced," Benegas said.
The facts of what happened to Bear Heels that day are still a painful reality.
"Eye-opening. It's frightening and it's not right," Kateri Petto an Indigenous grassroots organizer said.