Del Paso Heights Teens Share Perspectives On Week Of Violence

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Emotions are running high across the country after events in Dallas, Minnesota, and Louisiana. A group of Sacramento teenagers sat down with CBS 13 to explain how they're feeling watching it all on television.

"Honestly, I don't feel like any of this will ever change," said 17-year-old Charity Ualita. "All I can say in one word is 'tragedy.'"

A bleak perspective from a 17-year-old who has seen the unsettling headlines and images flashing across her TV screen for the last 24 hours. On Thursday, five police officers were gunned down by a sniper in Dallas. The shooter told police it was all in retaliation.

"Now they can see where we're coming from," said 16-year-old Jalyn Norris. "We're getting angry. It's time to end it."

The day before, Philandro Castile was shot by an officer in Minnesota. The day before, Alton Sterline was shot by police while selling CDs in a Louisiana parking lot.

"It just makes you kind of think about how you're perceived by other people and you kind of have to recognize that other people view you differently," said 19-year-old Quincy Brown.

"You're supposed to be the police, serve and protect, you're not doing that," Norris said. "You're killing us."

He told CBS13 he knows that murder is wrong, but feels that police have an easy out when a black man is killed.

"It's always the same thing," he said. "Oh somebody pulled out a gun or he was pulling out a knife. Why does it have to be the same story?"

Mercy Lagaaia and Charita Ualita are American Samoan and grew up in Del Paso Heights. But they say you don't have to be black to feel the pain of what's happening in America.

"We grew up with black people like we're family," Lagaaia said. "Those are people, like real people. But people don't see that sometimes."

But when it comes to solutions, the teens are as confused and concerned as the adults around them. "We can't come at it with hate, because two wrongs don't make a right," Lagaaia said.