Saturday, March 2
5:00 pm
Burger King
2055 Shadeland Ave
The Davis family and a community coalition against police brutality invites the public to join them as they demand justice for the murder of 37-year-old Frederick Davis, lovingly known as Freddie.
Freddie was killed by IMPD officer Nicolas Deem inside a Burger King on Shadeland Ave. in October 2023, after an initial trespassing incident with police at a hotel across the street. Allegedly after requesting he leave the hotel, officers attempted to continue questioning, at which point he fled. In IMPD’s critical incident video, officers can be seen immediately putting their hands on Freddie as he tried to hide from them in the restaurant bathroom. They go on to wrestle him to the ground, at which point they claim he fired on officer Deem, hitting him in the leg. In the video, Deem is seen firing an initial shot at Freddie, wounding him, and continued to fire more shots even as Freddie’s back was turned in an effort to escape with his life.
Since his murder by IMPD, the Davis family, and the Citizens Concerned About Police Action Shootings Coalition have been fighting to get Prosecutor Ryan Mears to press charges on the officer involved in Freddie’s death. Through consistent struggle, including weekly actions at public offices and a lawsuit against Mears, great strides have been made in achieving this goal. Recently, the coalition has won meetings with both the Chief of Police and Mears to discuss their case, as well as larger demands from the community on ways we can combat the rampant police violence seen in Indianapolis over the last year. This violence has and is directed primarily at Black people, who only make up 30% of Indianapolis’s population yet account for over 90% of deaths by IMPD officers in 2023.
However, one particular demand from the Davis family has not been honored: While the body cam footage has been released to the public, the family has asked to view the unedited CCTV video from Burger King, a request that has so far been ignored by both the Prosecutor and the fast-food chain, even though they released the same evidence to IMPD. His family has stated that he struggled with his mental health and often panhandled in the area, meaning that he was well-known to the employees that worked at the restaurant. We cannot allow businesses to move into our communities, take money from us, and then remain complicit in our state-sponsored murder. We must fight back and show them that we stand with the families of IMPD victims, and that we’ll take our business elsewhere if they choose to side with killer cops instead.
The rally will begin at 5:00 pm with speeches from the family, coalition members, and local religious leaders. If you’d like to help the family in their struggle but can’t make this in-person action, please consider calling the Burger King corporate office at: 866-394-2493 and demanding that they release the tape now.
Update
As of Saturday, March 2nd the Citizens Concerned About Police Action Shootings Coalition has tentatively called an end to the boycott on the Shadeland Ave. Burger King as an act of good faith after BK’s corporate office agreed to allow Freddie’s family to view the unedited CCTV footage taken on October 26, 2023. Keep an eye out on the Liberator early next week for a follow up article where you can read about the family’s analysis of the footage.