NORFOLK, Va. — People young and old are finding ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
For one Chesapeake teenager, she expressed herself through music.
On Friday afternoon, 14-year-old Anais Martinez-Medina played her cello at Town Point Park in Norfolk to honor Elijah McClain.
In 2019 McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, was put into a chokehold by police in Colorado and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. He was later declared brain dead and removed from life support.
Many musicians have performed in memory of McClain, who was a violinist.
"I'm playing the cello today in honor of Elijah McClain, whose life was taken away just about a year ago," Anais explained. "When I heard about his story, I was very sad and heartbroken, and I wondered: why am I hearing about this right now? Why am I hearing about this a year later and not when it happened? So, I feel that everyone should hear Elijah's story; I want them to hear him, and so that's why I'm playing today."
Anais will attend Grassfield High School this fall.
McClain’s death last August has prompted a handful of small protests over the last 10 months, but his case has garnered renewed attention amid a global outcry sparked by George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis last month.
Also on Friday, one of the officers who stopped McClain was fired over photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used on McClain. The other officers in the photos were also fired or resigned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.