Hundreds at funeral for teen girl killed by Denver police
Source: AP
By SADIE GURMAN
WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) — Hundreds of friends and relatives gathered Saturday to say goodbye to a 17-year-old girl shot to death by Denver police officers, recalling her big heart and gregarious spirit.
Mourners filled the pews at Saturday's funeral for Jessica Hernandez at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Westminster, in the suburbs north of Denver where she grew up. The Mass was held in Spanish, with English translation for the crowd that spilled beyond the church's doors.
The Rev. Richard Nakvasil remembered Hernandez as a devoted sister to her five siblings and as an empathetic teenager who tried to help the homeless. But he relied mostly on her own words, reading a poem she wrote in which she tried to summarize her complicated nature.
"I seem to be a fighter, someone who doesn't like connections," Nakvasil read, speaking into a microphone so those standing in the back could hear. "It seems I don't want peace. But really I am outgoing ... But really I do want peace. Where there is no violence. I really don't want to fight."
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Laura Hernandez, center, is surrounded by family members at a gravesite service for her 17-year-old daughter, Jessica, in Westminster, Colo. on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015. Police say Hernandez, 17, was shot Jan. 26 after she drove a stolen car toward an officer in a residential alley in Denver. A passenger in the car disputes the police account and says officers fired first. The shooting sparked protests and demands for an outside prosecutor to investigate what happened. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c0739a1d393f4ed7b74ebe97c07b8b0d/funeral-set-teen-girl-killed-denver-police
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