Mayor Bowser and MPD Tout Transparency — Yet Marqueese Alston’s Mother Still Doesn’t Know How or Why Police Killed Her Son.

In the first half of 2018, advocates filed 112 FOIA requests for body cam footage. None were granted.

The atmosphere was commemorative, yet solemn outside of Culture House DC (formerly Blind Whino) on June 12, 2019, one year after the Metropolitan Police Department shot and killed 22-year-old Marqueese “Queese” Alston. Candles lit readily on the windless evening in Southwest DC, while about 60 friends and family members wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts formed a circle in remembrance of the man taken so young. Occasionally, white people walked through or around the gathering on their way to view an exhibit inside the Culture House, Shelter for the Next Cold War.

Kenithia Alston, Marqueese’s mother, radiated strength, hope, and love in a gorgeous red and gold skirt with a bright red BLM t-shirt. She thanked everyone for coming, read an original psalm written for Marqueese, and demanded that MPD release the body camera footage of his death.

Marqueese’s brother, Anthony Alston, reminisced. He was supposed to see his brother that evening. Like nearly anyone else who has had something terrible happen to a person they love…