Trevon Cole remembered on anniversary of shooting death by police
The little girl looked around wide-eyed as her relatives cried and huddled together and tried to keep their candles lit.
KaLynn Cole just learned how to walk a few days ago. On Thursday, she turns 1, which means a year has passed since her father was shot and killed by Las Vegas police during a drug raid.
Before a vigil Friday to mark the anniversary, Ka-Lynn took a few wobbly steps on the sidewalk in front of the East Bonanza Road apartment where Trevon Cole died.
Nichelle Bratton can't look at her granddaughter without seeing her son.
"The way she smiles. Her personality. Her appetite," she said with a laugh. "She's the spitting image of her dad."
Bratton and about 15 other family members gathered in front of the one-bedroom apartment to celebrate the 21-year-old's life and remind people about his death.
Cole was unarmed when he was shot once in the face during the June 11, 2010, raid. His pregnant fiancée, Sequioa Pearce, was hiding in the closet. Five days later, she gave birth to KaLynn at University Medical Center.
"It seems like it was just yesterday," Bratton said.
Some days are harder than others for the family.
"Every now and then I hear his laugh. That's what really causes me to have my moments," Bratton said.
"As big as his smile was, that's how big his laugh was," said his aunt, Kimeryn Williams.
Family members hugged and prayed and sobbed in front of the apartment. When a poster of a smiling Trevon was put up on the sidewalk, Williams began to wail.
Residents of the complex peeked out their windows to see what was going on.
A local pastor read scripture. Pearce's mother sang a gospel song. This was Bratton's second trip back to the scene of her son's death.
The last time she was there, a few days after the shooting, the front door and window were still covered in plywood from when the police forced their way in.
On Friday, apartment 1074 looked like any other ground-level unit -- a window shaded with white vertical blinds, stucco painted with a fresh coat of brown. Nobody home.
CONTROVERSIAL SHOOTING
Cole's killing was one of two police shootings in 2010 that sparked public outrage and prompted reform of the coroner's inquest process.
Craig Mitchell, Cole's uncle, said he's glad some changes are being made, but it's not enough.
In April, Cole's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that seeks more than $10 million in damages from the Metropolitan Police Department.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are Detective Bryan Yant, who shot Cole; Sgt. John Harney, who was Yant's supervisor; and Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.
The lawsuit cites several mistakes by Yant, starting with his use of false information on the affidavit that led to the nighttime raid and ending when he fired his weapon.
Williams said she hopes her nephew's death will prompt improvements to police procedures and oversight, "so no other family has to go through this again."
Attorney Andre Lagomarsino, who filed the lawsuit, said lawyers for the department have requested more time to review and respond to the case.
Lagomarsino is preparing to file a motion with the court to have Cole listed as the father on KaLynn's birth certificate.
GETTING READY FOR BABY
Trevon Cole and Sequioa Pearce were high school sweethearts. They went to prom together, and when he graduated in 2007, she got her diploma a year early so they could move in together at college.
Bratton said Cole moved to Las Vegas in 2009 because he wanted to play football and study criminal justice at UNLV.
Those plans were put on hold when he had trouble with his transcripts, then found out Pearce was pregnant.
He got a job selling insurance, and she finished cosmetology school so she could work as a hairdresser. As the baby's due date approached, the couple moved into the one-bedroom apartment on East Bonanza Road and started getting ready.
Police said Cole was selling marijuana, including three small transactions made to undercover officers and prompting the raid. Evidence presented during the coroner's inquest into Cole's death suggested Cole was crouched over flushing small amounts of marijuana down the toilet when he was shot.
Bratton said she was shocked to learn about the drugs. The only trouble he got into in school was for talking in class. "He wasn't raised that way," she said.
Pearce said she and Trevon were happy and excited for the baby to arrive.
"We were making plans to decorate," she said.
He kept pressuring her to get married, but she wanted to wait because she didn't want to look fat in her wedding dress.
She persuaded him to wait until this July , so she could lose her pregnancy weight and the wedding wouldn't overshadow KaLynn's first birthday.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
Though Cole was unarmed and had no weapons in the apartment, the shooting was ruled justified by both the inquest jury and a police Use of Force Board.
An internal investigation later concluded that Yant violated several agency policies in connection with the fatal shooting.
The detective also was investigated for falsifying documents in an unrelated drug case.
Earlier this year, Yant was suspended one week without pay but allowed to keep his roughly $80,000-a-year job.
He has been reassigned to a desk job with no interaction with the public.
Pearce and KaLynn now live with relatives in Lancaster, Calif., but they make regular visits to Bratton's Los Angeles-area home, where they have their own room.
The 21-year-old said she still has trouble at night, when the dark brings back the sights and sounds of the raid. She still has family and hairdressing clients in Las Vegas, but she said she can't stand to be here for more than a few days at a time.
Bratton has built a large shrine to her son inside the house and filled it with photos and some his belongings.
The shrine is there for her and her granddaughter. For one to remember and the other to find out what she never got the chance to learn.
"She's definitely going to know who her father was," Bratton said. "Definitely."
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
