SAN ANTONIO – The mother of 14-year-old murder victim Simon Cuevas III is urging people not to seek revenge on his behalf.
Alejandra Cuevas made those statements to KSAT 12 News at the scene of an impromptu protest involving neighborhood parents on Thursday morning.
“I don’t want them to try to go out and try to seek justice on their own,” she said. “Simon wouldn’t want them to get in trouble or hurt, either. I know that he’s going to be looking down at them, and he’s proud that everybody tries to stand up for him.”
Simon was shot and killed on April 16, about two blocks from Brewer Academy, an alternative school located on Merida Street near South Zarzamora Street where he attended classes.
Although San Antonio police said at the time that a group of people attacked Simon, then shot and killed him, officers have yet to make any arrests in the case.
Cuevas’ mother and other family members were among a group of parents and neighbors who gathered near the school.
They intended to provide support for students who had planned a walkout to call for justice.
When students failed to leave the building, the parents instead walked toward the campus.
Some in the crowd chanted, “Justice for Simon! Justice for Simon!” as they approached a line of San Antonio Independent School District police officers who assembled in the parking lot.
One woman accused the officers of not allowing the students to leave and not doing more to regularly protect them.
“Where were you stopping the kids that day when Simon died?” Alejandra Cuevas asked. “Don’t stop our children now.”
From time to time, some students could be seen catching glimpses of the commotion from a second-floor window.
After about 30 minutes, the crowd began to disperse and walk toward a parking lot two blocks down, just across from a memorial set up in Simon’s honor.
There, Pastor Jimmy Robles with Second Chance Ministries offered words of prayer over a loudspeaker.
Robles’ church was one of the groups that helped to organize the student walkout event.
Robles said the idea was to have students re-create the final steps Simon took before he died.
“Then (they) get the opportunity to walk actually back to school,” Robles said. “Simon won’t ever get that opportunity again.”
Although the event did not quite go as planned, Alejandra Cuevas said it still brought her family some comfort.
“It does give me strength as well to know there are a lot of good people out here,” she said. “They’re willing to stand up.”
The hope among Alejandra Cuevas and everyone else in the group, though, is that the people who killed Simon are caught as quickly as possible.
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