Gina Thayne misses her nephew Dillon Taylor every day.
Thayne was his last legal guardian, and he was like a son to her. A Salt Lake City Police officer fatally shot Taylor in 2014. Visiting his grave brings up painful memories for Thayne. She prefers looking at the large pink and red portrait of him painted on the city’s Fleet Block. Twenty-eight other portraits of people killed by police adorn the wall along 300 W between 800 and 900 South.
“I love when I can drive by and I can see his beautiful face there,” Thayne said.
In the coming months, Salt Lake City plans to tear down the murals so the site can be redeveloped into a mixed-use development. Sofia Jeremias, the city’s Department of Community and Neighborhoods spokesperson said in an email it would be almost impossible, logistically, to preserve the murals. The city did create a digital archive for the families.
Families and other community members gathered at the Fleet Block on Feb. 8 for a vigil to honor victims of police brutality and mourn together as they said goodbye to the beloved portraits.
The destruction of the murals is painful to think about, Thayne said as she started to cry. For her and the other families at the vigil, losing these murals almost feels like losing their loved ones all over again.
“It's almost like the time when they died, them taking them down,” Thayne said.
Anonymous artists created the tribute in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, which sparked national outrage and protests.
Since then, Thayne said the Fleet Block has become a memorial where she can feel serenity and love. Families who have a loved one on the walls have found camaraderie through the mural site, where they gather to share memories, grieve and lean on each other for support.
“It's a place we can come and we understand each other because outside of this space, nothing else makes sense to anybody but us,” Thayne said. “Their deaths never made sense, and they never will, but these walls depict harmony.”
Thayne wore a grey hoodie that she made with Dillon’s pink and red mural portrait on the back. She hugged the other families that gathered and gave them similar hoodies with their loved one’s portraits.
The murals are a powerful part of the community, Thayne said, because they’re impossible to miss as you go past. She thinks they’re especially important for people in positions of authority to see.
“I think it helps them realize, you know, that there was really something wrong and things broken on so many levels,” Thayne said. “It keeps the conversation open every day.”
Another face on the wall is Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal, whose fatal shooting by Salt Lake City police in 2020 sparked local protests. Bernardo’s family placed flowers underneath his portrait during the vigil.
Karina Palacios said it was comforting to see her younger brother’s portrait when it first appeared on the Fleet Block because it showed his humanity for everyone to see.
“He was a human being. He was a loving brother, a loyal friend. And this didn’t have to happen the way it did,” Palacios said.
Tree Stanley’s son Michael Glad was fatally shot by West Jordan Police in 2018. She said when she saw his portrait for the first time she broke down.
“It’s so incredibly beautiful,” she said while looking at Glad’s face. “I miss him so much.”
Stanley said Glad was cremated and she has his urn at home. She loved being able to come to the Fleet Block and sit with him.
“I am angry that they are tearing these down, and I am sad,” Stanley said. “And I wish that there was something we could do to somehow save them.”
In addition to the Utah faces, George Floyd is also painted on the wall. Floyd’s uncle Selwyn Jones flew to Utah to attend the vigil. In his time traveling the country advocating for racial justice and speaking against police brutality, Jones said he’s never seen a memorial quite like the one in Salt Lake City, wrapped around a building.
“This is a spiritual place for some of these family members,” Jones said. “You see mothers out here, their hearts are breaking but it gives them some kind of resolve to be able to see their babies on the wall.”
In 2022, the families sent the city a letter expressing their desire for the city to create some kind of permanent memorial to those depicted in the murals, ideally at the redeveloped Fleet Block.
While the exact future of the Fleet Block is unknown, the city has promised it will have three acres of public community space that will feature commissioned artwork honoring what it calls the social justice themes of the murals.
Jeremias said the city has been in regular communication with the families leading up to this point, offering counseling services and promising to continue working with them to figure out how to best honor the site’s legacy.
And the families say they will be watching for the city to follow through on that promise.
“They better do what they said they're gonna do,” said Rae Duckworth, cousin of Bobby Duckworth who was killed by police in 2019.
Duckworth said it’s gutting to think about losing her cousin’s mural.
For Thayne, a redeveloped Fleet Block should have a place that gives the families the same serenity and love that the murals currently bring.
“To see these go down, it's hard, it hurts, but I do look forward to seeing the city step up and actually coming through on something,” she said.
The city said the area will likely be fenced off by the end of February and demolition will begin in March.
