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‘Silent fight’

‘Silent fight’

Tribe files lawsuit as Tsinigine’s family marks death anniversary

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Family and friends of the late Loreal Tsinigine held a candlelight vigil on the night of March 27 – one year since she was shot and killed during an altercation with then-Winslow Police Officer Austin Shipley.

WINSLOW

Two years later, the fight for justice continues for the family of Loreal Tsinigine.

On the day that marks her untimely death, March 27, family and friends gathered at the spot where, two years earlier, then-Winslow Police Officer Austin Shipley shot the 27-year-old mother five times during an altercation.

The next day, the Navajo Nation announced it had filed a civil rights lawsuit in the case.

A stand had been arranged on the sidewalk on West 4th Street, which her family covered with candles, photographs and posters.

Tsinigine’s aunt Floranda Dempsey, cousin Alta Barnell and older half brother David John smiled and joked as they remembered the person they knew – a different person, they say, from the one described in the police report.

Shipley told investigators in a September 2017 interview that he was responding to a shoplifting call that occurred at the Circle K convenience store.

A shoplifter is not how Dempsey said she remembers her niece.

“She was a beautiful person,” she said. “It really hurts because the public doesn’t know what we lost.”

Dempsey was referring to the way some criticized Tsinigine without knowing her like she did. However much the criticism hurt, she said it was not going to deter the family’s “silent fight” for justice.

The niece she remembers was “rambunctious, silly and just really sweet,” a girl who herded sheep and rode horses on the dusty plains of Teesto, Arizona.


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About The Author

Donovan Quintero

"Dii, Diné bi Naaltsoos wolyéhíígíí, ninaaltsoos át'é. Nihi cheii dóó nihi másání ádaaní: Nihi Diné Bizaad bił ninhi't'eelyá áádóó t'áá háadida nihizaad nihił ch'aawóle'lágo. Nihi bee haz'áanii at'é, nihisin at'é, nihi hózhǫ́ǫ́jí at'é, nihi 'ach'ą́ą́h naagééh at'é. Dilkǫǫho saad bee yájíłti', k'ídahoneezláo saad bee yájíłti', ą́ą́ chánahgo saad bee yájíłti', diits'a'go saad bee yájíłti', nabik'íyájíłti' baa yájíłti', bich'į' yájíłti', hach'į' yándaałti', diné k'ehgo bik'izhdiitįįh. This is the belief I do my best to follow when I am writing Diné-related stories and photographing our events, games and news. Ahxéhee', shik'éí dóó shidine'é." - Donovan Quintero, an award-winning Diné journalist, served as a photographer, reporter and as assistant editor of the Navajo Times until March 17, 2023.

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