A Chicago mother didn't know Avondale police killed her son for months. Now she's suing
For months, Keitha Tucker didn’t know where her teenage son was.
The Chicago mother said her son, Amarion Hope, had been an obedient child and model student throughout most of his young life but began struggling after schools shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He began to develop mental health issues, during the isolating lockdowns, that only worsened as time went on.
Tucker took her son to doctors and counselors, but none of the treatments seemed to work. She said her son eventually became more rebellious and disobedient, and when he refused to obey her house rules she sent him to live with her sister, who also lived in Chicago.
Tucker and Hope got into arguments about him not wanting to go back to school, arguing that schools were a “scam” and anything he needed to learn was available on the internet.
Tucker said she ultimately acquiesced with the understanding that he would pursue his GED in lieu of a high school diploma. After a couple of months, Tucker had Hope stay with his older brother who lived in Indianapolis.
Hope had a close relationship with his brother, and Tucker hoped their fraternal bond would help alleviate some of the issues Hope had been struggling with.
But on Feb. 16, Hope disappeared.
He had mentioned wanting to visit places like Atlanta, Texas and Arizona in the past but hadn’t mentioned making explicit travel plans — much less executing them — to any of his family.
Tucker filed a missing persons report, which law enforcement had told her would be available to other agencies nationwide.
It wasn’t until the summer when a woman who lived at Hope’s brother’s apartment complex informed her that she saw a news article about a fatal police shooting in Avondale involving a 17-year-old featuring a sketch that closely resembled Hope.
Tucker called the Avondale Police Department, which directed her to contact a local morgue where the body was held.
That day, July 1, Tucker learned that her son, whom she hadn’t seen in person since he visited her in Chicago for Thanksgiving, had been dead for months.
Dead in Arizona within days
Hope’s interstate journey was short-lived.
Tucker said she believed her son bought tickets for a bus ride to the Phoenix area using $300 his brother had given him to buy clothes and other essentials.
It remains unclear what Hope intended to do in the Valley or if he even had any concrete plans to begin with. But it wasn’t long before he had an encounter with police that quickly turned fatal.
On Feb. 21, less than a week after he disappeared, Avondale police received calls reporting a potential shoplifting at a Family Dollar store near Dysart Road and Riley Drive. The callers described a Black man matching Hope’s description.
Avondale police released edited snippets of body-camera footage from an officer, whom legal documents identify as Officer Cardenas Duarte, that showed Duarte approaching Hope at the Agua Fria River bottom near 10th Street and Riley Drive.
The footage shows Duarte asking Hope how he’s doing and instructing him to keep his hands visible.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Duarte says to Hope, who has his hands open and arms outstretched.
Duarte tells Hope he’s being detained and attempts to handcuff him before ordering Hope to relax his arm. Duarte closes a cuff around one of Hope’s wrists when Hope appears to fight back against Duarte.
Footage shows Hope continuing to struggle to break free from Duarte, who appears to have fallen to the ground.
“Stop or you won’t go to — OK now you’re going to prison, bro,” Duarte says as Hope continues to resist, at some points grabbing Duarte’s hand before eventually breaking free.
Footage shows Hope sprinting away when Duarte immediately pulls out a handgun and fires five times at Hope’s back. Duarte shouts at Hope to get on the ground after he had already collapsed.
It wasn’t long before Hope drew his last breath.
Officer: ‘So I just started dumping rounds on him’
The officer explains why he shot Hope in a notice of claim — a required precursor before filing a lawsuit against a municipality — that Tucker filed against Avondale, the Avondale Police Department and Duarte.
“(Hope) took off,” the claim quotes Duarte as saying. “When he was running he had something in his right pocket. I don’t know what it was. So I just started dumping rounds on him.”
During an interview with The Arizona Republic, Tucker said her son had no criminal history and wasn’t a threat to Duarte after he broke free.
“It was very devastating because the officer shot multiple — he shot him multiple times in his back as he was fleeing,” Tucker said. “So at that point, he meant no harm.”
She added that her son’s suspected shoplifting and attempt to resist arrest didn’t warrant lethal force.
“I would want (Duarte) to take accountability for killing a kid,” Tucker said. “He was just a kid. He was only 17 years old. He could have used another type of weapon. He didn’t have to shoot my son.”
Tucker said she wanted justice for her son by seeing Duarte criminally charged and prosecuted for her son’s death.
Benjamin Taylor, an attorney representing Tucker, echoed Tucker’s claims, saying Duarte’s decision to shoot Hope was unacceptable and illegal.
“Looking at the body-camera footage, you see a young teenager running away unarmed and shot multiple times in the back,” Taylor said. “So this was a murder. And the prosecutor needs to prosecute this officer. Avondale police need to fire this officer.”
Avondale police did not respond to a request for comment on the notice of claim and did not clarify whether Duarte remained employed with the department, or whether it had completed its administrative investigation into the shooting to determine whether Duarte had violated department policy.
The criminal investigation into the shooting was submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office on April 14 according to the agency's website. The agency hadn't yet decided on whether to prosecute Duarte as of Thursday.
Pier Simeri, a city spokesperson, declined to comment on the notice of claim citing pending litigation.
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Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chicago mother to sue Avondale police after death of son
