A Florida National Guard sergeant, Valerie Deant, recently went to the gun range in North Miami Beach, Fla., happening to use the facility right after the local police department's target practice session. As she and her fellow guard members prepared to start their own practice, however, she noticed the targets the police had been using: mugshots of real black suspects, including a photo of her brother, torn through with bullet holes.
She called her brother, who was arrested almost two decades ago for participating in a drag race in which two people died. Since then, he has turned his life around and was shocked to find his face was being used for target practice. "I'm not even living that life," said Deant's brother, Woody, whose picture was used. "I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a career man."
In response to the Deant family's outrage, the police chief said that the department will not stop shooting at photos of real people, but will begin using photos of white and Latino men, too.
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