A year later, protesters injured by police are still trying to heal
Rickia Young, a 29-year-old nurse’s aide, clearly remembers the moment police officers swarmed her car in West Philadelphia last year. She heard one window shatter, then another. Not only was she worried for her own safety, but Young said she feared for her toddler son’s life.
“The cops were banging and yelling, ‘Get the f--- out of the car!’” Young recalled. “They were trying to bust all of the windows out. I was yelling, ‘My son’s in the car, stop! Stop!’ Then I felt my face on fire from the mace. From that moment, I was fighting to live.”
She was driving through West Philadelphia early on Oct. 27, 2020, to pick up a family friend who was out among demonstrators protesting the killing of Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who had been shot by police responding to a 911 call a day earlier. She was attempting to make a U-turn through the rowdy crowd when Philadelphia police officers approached her car, broke the windows, dragged her from the vehicle and beat her. She became separated from her son amid the attack. The city of Philadelphia recently agreed to pay Young a $2 million settlement for the attack in September. Young, whose son is now 3, has also sued the police union over the photo, which she claims was misleading. The lawsuit is pending. However, she said neither the settlement nor the lawsuit can undo what happened.
“I still ache every day,” she said of her injuries. “I can barely play with my son. If I try to run, my back will hurt. I can barely do everyday things. I can’t even hold a baby for a long time because my arm will give out on me. I never thought in a million years that my body would feel so old so soon. It’s really been hard.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/protesters-injured-by-police-george-floyd-still-trying-to-heal/index.html
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