A year ago, Linda Downs spent part of her Christmas Eve in a Fairbanks hospital. This year, she’ll be spending part of her Christmas Eve on the steps of the Alaska Capitol.<\/p>\n
Downs’ grandson Cody Eyre was shot and killed<\/a> by Fairbanks Police Department officers and Alaska State Troopers on Dec. 24, 2017. Downs, who lives in Juneau, was in Fairbanks when it happened and was in the hospital with Eyre as he died.<\/p>\n “It was extremely unreal,” Downs said. “It certainly was the last thing anyone would ever think, that you’re going to be losing your grandson on Christmas Eve.”<\/p>\n Downs is leading a protest from 6-7 p.m. tonight on the steps of the Capitol, advocating for authorities to release evidence from the shooting and for the state to require law enforcement to go through more crisis intervention training.<\/p>\n Eyre, a Thunder Mountain High School graduate, was having a mental health crisis and took a walk to clear his mind that night, his family members have explained in interviews and online. Authorities got a call from a Facebook friend of Eyre’s saying that Eyre said on a Facebook Live video that he was contemplating suicide. Eyre’s mother also called police to say she was concerned about her son.<\/p>\n Eyre, 20, was armed, was acting erratic and gestured his gun toward officers, according to a joint press release earlier this year from the FPD and Troopers. The officers fired more than 40 times at Eyre, and Eyre suffered 23 wounds, according to a report from Chief Assistant Attorney General Paul J. Miovas, Jr. The fatal wound was to the back of Eyre’s head, the report stated.<\/p>\n