The vigil started out with prayer and the lighting of the candles. Family member Ato Abebe Kebede made the welcoming remarks and participants sipped on hot tea during the speeches, poetry reading and singing.

“The question is, why did such a man die pierced by so many bullets,” said family friend Liz Degoursac, one of the speechmakers. Liz works in the advocacy and education arm of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Her twin sister suffers from Bipolar Disorder, the same mental affliction Surafel was diagnosed with. Approximately two million American adults suffer from Bipolar Disorder.

“We would like the Cobb County government to have an open investigation into this; an independent body to look into this situation,” Ato Abebe Kebede told reporter Rebecca Shram from Clear Channel News, the CBS affiliate in Atlanta. The case is being presented to the Cobb County grand jury this month.

Press coverage of the vigil was very robust. The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Don Plummer wrote a long piece on Surafel for the Wednesday morning edition.

Don was also present at the vigil. Reporters from the Marietta Journal and WAGA-FOX News were also present. FOX News, which had exclusively covered the peaceful rally on November 17, covered the vigil on its 10:00 p.m. broadcast, and aired it several times on its Thursday morning news shows.

WGCL-CBS broadcast its report on Thursday morning. In addition, Atlanta’s WALK 1380 AM extensively interviewed Surafel’s brother Kirubel on the Chris Askew Show. Even though WSB- Channel 2, the ABC Atlanta affiliate, did not send a reporter, they covered the vigil on their Wednesday evening news. Amazingly, all the coverage was very positive and stressed that Surafel, an Electrical Engineering student who was also a poet and a writer, was fatally shot by two police officers even though he was only holding a wood block.

Chris Askew was very complimentary about the 5,400 signatures signed by supporters of Surafel from all over the world.

About 708 of you wrote to local media outlets urging them to cover the vigil, and your efforts paid off! Your continuing support is bearing unprecedented fruit. It made a huge difference!

The vigil closed with a prayer and a vow to continue to pursue the case. Bells rang thirty times, which was how old Surafel was when he died. “I still can’t believe he is gone,” said Kirubel Assaminew, speaking about his brother.

There was a very palpable air of cooperation and reverence in the air last night. To all the braves souls who attended the vigil, to those of you who emailed the press, and to all of you in four continents who have signed the petition, please accept our heartfelt gratitude. Last night, in a small corner of downtown Marietta, Surafel’s spirit rose again. Thank you to all who made this possible.

We are getting ready to tackle the national media, and we hope we can continue to depend on your support.

Sincerely,

Advocates for Surafel Assaminew