KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Members of the Black community in Knoxville, Tennessee, are calling for reforms to dispel longstanding disparities between Blacks and whites. They say that is one of the steps that needs to be taken to reduce increasing violence that has claimed the lives of five high school-age students this year. Four of those students died in the streets. The fifth was fatally shot in a high school bathroom by police officers trying to detain him. The district attorney’s office says the officers feared for their lives when Anthony Thompson Jr.’s gun went off from inside his pocket. But Knoxville County’s sole Black commissioner says he’s convinced the student would still be alive if he were white.
