Feb 16, 2003 By Jennifer Harr 3 min read

Justin McNair marched for Michael Ellerbe and for himself. The 7-year-old Uniontown boy said he was fearful that what happened to Ellerbe could happen to him “if I made a mistake like Mike did,” said McNair.

He and other youngsters were among the nearly 300 people who braved the cold to take part in a march in honor of Ellerbe. Many of those who turned out wore signs, some in remembrance of Ellerbe, others, like McNair’s, just asking for justice.

“I want police behind bars for my future,” read McNair’s sign.

He made the poster-board sign himself, after he got permission from his parents to attend the march.

“I’m doing this for my future,” said McNair. “I don’t want to end up dead like (Ellerbe).”

Twelve-year-old James Gaines agreed.

“My mother worries when I go outside to play. I tell her I’m not doing anything wrong, but that doesn’t stop her from freaking out when she can’t find me,” said Gaines.

He screamed as loudly as anyone as he walked the route of the march, from Clark Street, onto Connellsville Street and then to Murray Avenue, where the march stopped briefly near the home where Ellerbe was shot.

Standing in the street, the group chanted, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”

The protest was marked with peace and prayer, a goal Tina Whitehead championed before marchers set off for their walk to the courthouse rally.

“I’m here today to remember Michael Ellerbe. …His life and death deserve peace and meaning,” said Whitehead, the wife of the Rev. Thomas Whitehead. Whitehead is the head of Calvary United Methodist Church, where the march began.

Whitehead said she was hopeful that the walk would lead to justice by educating people.

Darlene Dennis said she shared in Whitehead’s hope for peacefulness for the day, and she spoke at the rally of her frustration with the inquest, in which Ellerbe’s death was ruled a justifiable homicide.

District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon later decided she would not file charges against troopers Juan Curry and Samuel Nassan, both of whom were chasing Ellerbe when he was shot Christmas Eve. Nassan fired the fatal shot, laboring under the mistaken belief that Curry had been shot. In reality, the shot Nassan heard was the accidental discharge of Curry’s firearm.

“Cops are not above the law,” said Dennis. “The police get away with murder every day.”

She also offered her sympathies to the family of a 14-year-old San Antonio, Texas, girl who was accidentally shot by drug enforcement agents last week. Dennis offered to have members of the group People Against Police Violence, which was formed in Pittsburgh, travel to meet the teen’s family.