More than 50 community members gathered in peaceful protest Saturday evening for an anti-hate rally following the stabbing of a 16-year-old Black girl the previous weekend in Lakeside.
A boy and girl — who are 16 and 15 years old, respectively — are facing attempted murder and hate crime charges for the incident. The boy has been identified as white, but the girl's race has not been released.
Community advocate Tasha Williamson, who attended Saturday's rally, previously said the family is in hiding because they believe those involved have ties to a white supremacist gang.
"Lakeside Gangsters is a well-known heinous gang that has committed atrocities in Lakeside and around Lakeside. (The family) fear for their lives."Tasha Williamson
The rally began early evening outside the corner of Ashwood and Mapleview in Lakeside. And ended around 7:30 p.m. at the Lakeside Community Center near Lindo Lake.
Danielle Wilkerson, an organizer for the activist group East County BIPOC, lead the group marching down Vine Street.
Marchers chanted, "Whose streets? Our streets!" in protest of how the San Diego County Sheriff's Department has managed the investigation.
Families on their way to the annual Lakeside Rodeo paused to watch.
A man on his way to the rodeo was confronted by a protester after he began to yell his opposition at marchers.
Rally goers aimed to draw attention to what they said is a mishandled case that "emphasizes the systematic issues we face in addition to the discrimination from our own neighbors."
During the march, Sheriff's deputies observed the protesters from a distance. The Sheriff’s Department faced community outrage last Tuesday during a town hall attended by more than 100 people. A number of those in attendance called the violent incident yet another example of unchecked racism in East County.
At the end of the rally, marchers listened to community activists speak against racism in Lakeside.
"We cant ask for changes," said Yusef Miller, of the North County Equity and Justice Coalition. "We had to demand that the young boy be arrested. We had demand that the young girl with the pipe be arrested. And we’re still demanding that the two adults that walked these children to this crime be arrested, and they’re not arrested yet."
San Diego County Sheriff's Department detectives are continuing their investigating after they recently re-arrested the 15-year-old girl in connection with the stabbing.