Dallas is honoring a 12-year-old boy who was wrongfully killed back in the 1970s.
The City of Dallas proclaimed July 24 as “Santos Rodriguez Day,” in honor of the boy. Rodriguez was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer 50 years ago.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia gave Santos’ family an official apology in 2021, and the following year a 6-foot statue was erected in his honor at Pike Park, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“It was the worst crime in the history of Dallas possibly excluding the killing of President Kennedy,” explained Rick Halperin, the director of the human rights program at Southern Methodist University, according to ABC 8 WFAA.
Undergrad students studying human rights at the university can earn the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
The Santos Rodriguez Memorial Coalition continues to lead initiatives to preserve Santos’ memory.
Recently, Greenhill School in Addison partnered with the coalition to showcase a new documentary on his murder known as Santos Vive.
“As part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of this awful event, the Coalition will present a week-long menu of opportunities for us, as 21st century Dallasites, to confront and hopefully learn from our past, with the goal of transitioning from darkness to hope, from ignorance of our own history to a commitment to create a more just and loving future for our city,” said Greenhill School in a press release.
The coalition has also partnered with Preservation Dallas, the Dallas Mexican American Historical League, and Dallas attorney Sol Villasana to organize a symposium on the tragedy on July 25. The event will take place at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas starting at 5:30 p.m.
Rodriguez died during an interrogation conducted by former Officer Darrell Cain, who was questioning Santos and his brother David on suspicion of theft.
Santos had denied stealing change from a vending machine at a gas station, yet Cain attempted to force a confession through a game of Russian Roulette. He placed a .357 Magnum on the left side of Santos’ head and killed him with the second shot.
Cain was subsequently arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for murder with malice. The length of the sentence prompted outrage among many Dallas residents, resulting in violent demonstrations.
