On a chilly, windy March evening, family and friends of 16-year-old Jose Cruz marched in silence to the cemetery where the teenager was buried nearly one year ago.
"I just miss his beautiful voice," Cruz's 13-year old sister, Ana Cartagena, said softly. "I just miss his voice and everything about him."
The group gathered graveside to pray and hear a call to action.
"It was a mistake that should not have cost him his life," said activist and family spokesman Carlos Quintanilla. "The family only wants this officer who was charged with murder and indicted for murder to be sent to prison."
In September, a Dallas County grand jury indicted Officer Ken Johnson for the March 13, 2016, shooting death of Cruz.
Johnson, a now-former Farmers Branch police officer, was off-duty when he allegedly saw Cruz and another man trying to burglarize his SUV at his apartment complex. Investigators say Johnson chased the pair to an Addison gas station, where he fired the shots that killed Cruz and injured the other man.
Johnson later resigned from the Farmers Branch Police Department.
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"I don't understand how there are men like the one who took Jose away from us," cried Cruz's grandmother, Norma Ochoa.
"If we get justice, my family is going to be more happy and my brother is going to be smiling up there," explained Cartagena.
Johnson is out of jail on $250,000 bond awaiting his trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 7 in Dallas County.
