Community members protest for Normal teen killed by police
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — Central Illinoisans are calling for justice for Cole Turner, the 15-year-old Normal resident shot and killed by Bloomington police in southwest Bloomington in February
Dozens of Turner's friends, family, and community members marched from the McLean County Museum of History to the Bloomington Police Department. They're demanding for bodycam footage to be released so they can get answers.
WMBD filed a Freedom of Information request for the bodycam footage on March 3, but was denied because releasing the footage could 'interfere with a pending or actually and reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings.'
On Feb. 26, Bloomington police responded to the 800 block of Arcadia Drive around 5 p.m. for reports of a person with a gun.
They made contact with Turner, but somehow things escalated and officers fired their weapons, hitting Turner multiple times. He died at the scene.
Turner's mother, Kelsey Woodrum, said the police have failed to give her a justification as to why her son was shot and killed.
'They have given me nothing. I have not spoken with Bloomington police about anything. It makes me feel like things are being hidden from me. It makes me feel like people don't want me to see the videos for certain reasons. It makes me feel like they may or may not have been wrong or not justified. And that's what we're here to find out today,' said Woodrum.
Turner was a student at McLean County Unit Five within the last year. Woodrum remembered her son as someone who loved life with a taste for adventure, despite a tough upbringing.
'Cole was wild. He was happy and he was smart. And he was bodacious. He was so gorgeous. He was always smiling. He was always happy. He's super adventurous. This is perfect weather. He's definitely out here with us today. He enjoyed people. He enjoyed his friends. He enjoyed his family. He had a tough life,' she said.
WMBD has reached out to the Bloomington Police Department for comment.
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