John Collado, the grandfather and former pro-wrestler who was shot to death by police outside of his Inwood apartment three and a half years ago, would have turned 47 this week.
On September 6th, 2011, Collado intervened in a tussle between his friend and another man who turned out to be plainclothes narcotics detective James Connelly. Police maintained Collado was choking the officer when he was fatally shot. According to a lawyer for Collado's family, security camera footage showed Collado never had the cop in a chokehold. In 2012, a grand jury declined to indict Connelly.
To mark Collado's birthday this year, his family invited members of the Artists for Justice collective to help create a memorial on the sidewalk where he was shot.
Alex Seele, one of the artists, said his group is seeking to maintain the momentum of the Black Lives Matter protests that proliferated through New York last December after the failure to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner.
"It goes further than just the protests," Seel says. "Part of our responsibility as artists is being aware of the needs of the movement. Look, I can't pass legislation. But we can come and open hearts and open minds with our work."
Seel says the Collado memorial is the first of a series he's undertaking to memorialize people killed by New York City police officers. "We have all these recent deaths, but we forget that this has been an epidemic for years. For this family, three or four years later, the pain is still there, the struggle is there."
Here's a video Seel made showing the creation of the memorial and featuring a statement by Collado's widow:
