PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Friends and family said goodbye on Thursday to Eddie Jose Irizarry, the man who was shot to death by a Philadelphia police officer last week.
Several dozen friends and family members sat in pews near the front where the coffin sat, closed after an open-casket viewing in the Christ and St. Ambrose Episcopal Church at 6th and Venango streets in the Fairhill section of Philadelphia. Most wore t-shirts reading “Justice for Junito,” Irizarry’s nickname.
Irizarry was shot and killed by Officer Mark Dial during a traffic stop on Aug. 14, after parking the wrong way on Willard Street in Fairhill. Surveillance video obtained and released by Irizarry’s family showed Dial firing into Irizarry’s car seconds after the 27-year-old pulled to a stop.
The video contradicts the police’s original report that Irizarry had lunged at officers with a knife. Dial has not been charged with a crime following the incident, but Commissioner Danielle Outlaw says he has been suspended and will be fired within the month.
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Family members were reluctant to speak, but family friend Ricky Roma said they are feeling more than grief.
“The family’s angry because of the way the police handled everything and the deception at the beginning, the videotape, yeah the family’s upset. There’s a mixture of all those emotions and understandably so,” Roma explained.
Jamal Johnson stood near the church with a sign that read “Mass police reform.” He said he didn’t know Irizarry, but came to protest gun violence and police brutality. “The truth of the matter is,” he said, “a young man should not be dead right now and we have to protest these types of actions.”
Rev. Jose Luis Memba led prayers for Irizarry and conducted most of the funeral mass in Spanish. He said he hoped to give an uplifting message and bring the mourners comfort. “My meditation is, God is here with us,” he shared. “He needs us to open our hearts so that He can direct us to build a community that is living with each other in peace.”
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