South Bend community activist Blu Casey told CNN's Brooke Baldwin that he doesn't trust Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) in the aftermath of a police shooting of an African-American man.
"That's a hard question," Casey said in response to Baldwin asking if he trusted Buttigieg. "I want to trust the spirit. So right now, no. But I will give him the chance to do the right thing."
Buttigieg cancelled several campaign events to return to South Bend to address the shooting. The 2020 presidential hopeful held a town hall which several audience members interrupted to voice their displeasure with the handling of the shooting.
"You gotta get back to South Carolina like you was yesterday? Talk about 'all lives matter' in South Carolina?" one audience member shouted.
South Bend police say that Sgt. Ryan O'Neill was responding to reports of cars being burglarized. After approaching 53-year-old Eric Jack Logan in an apartment parking lot, O'Neill claimed Logan threatened him with a knife. He opened fire on Logan, who died in the hospital later that day. O'Neill's body camera was not on during the encounter.
The South Bend Police Department has been accused of racism several times since Buttigieg demoted the city's first black police chief in 2012. Buttigieg demoted then police chief Darryl Boykins over a controversy involving secret tapes of white officers allegedly using racial slurs while talking about Boykins. Boykins's replacement, Ron Teachman, faced several accusations of racial discrimination from black officers after being appointed by Buttigieg.