The family of Malik Jones gathered at the corner of Grand Avenue and Murphy Street in New Haven on Monday to unveil a plan to build what they called a “social justice institution” on the site where he was killed 28 years ago.  The family is campaigning to raise $2.5 million to purchase an e mpty lot on the corner, where they plan to construct the building.  According to a website dedicated to the project, the Malik Jones Social Justice Institution is designed to be “a haven for families impacted by police violence.” Jewu Richardson, the co-director of the Connecticut Bail Fund who was himself shot by a police officer, said that they wanted to create a place where community members could come together and grieve after a traumatic community loss.  “When people get murdered by the police, they rally, they go to the police station and then they all go to their different corners of their neighborhood,” said Richardson. “Our goal is to build an institution, a building where if something like this happens, people can come straight here and there’ll be support for them here, where we can strategize and plan on how to address this situation. We don’t have to sit in silence and just deal with the trauma by ourselves.”  On April 14, 1997, Jones, then 21, was pursued in a high-speed chase by Officer Robert Flodquist from East Haven into New Haven. At the corner of Murphy Street and Grand Avenue, police cars boxed in Jones’ vehicle. Flodquist broke the car window with the butt of his gun. When Jones shifted the car into reverse, Flodquist said he believed Jones was trying to run him over, and he shot at the car multiple times, killing Jones.  A court ruled that the officers involved in the shooting had used “excessive force” but that they were entitled to qualified immunity, a principle that generally protects police officers from lawsuits unless their conduct violates a person’s “clearly established” right. The court did rule, however, that East Haven was liable for Jones’ killing because of the town’s “unconstitutional custom, policy, or usage of deliberate indifference against racial minorities.” An appeals court later overturned the ruling on East Haven, saying the city was not responsible for Jones’ death.   Emma Jones, Malik’s mother, said she was grateful for the amount of support she’d received from community members in the wake of her son’s death. She said she’d initially been told not to expect much, since her son was one of many people who had been killed by a police officer.  “Well, not only did I get a lot of support for Malik, but I rallied with other people, and they got a lot of support for what happened to their loved one,” she said.  Despite being awarded $2.5 million by one jury and $900,000 by a judge in 2010, Emma Jones said she’d never collected a cent of that money. Both decisions were later reversed by the courts.  Jones referred to the future institution as a place of “pure joy.” She suggested that it might include a museum where people could learn about what happened to Malik, or a place that could host yoga or meditation. The website advertised “programs designed to educate, inspire, and galvanize community action against systemic injustice.”   Richardson told The Connecticut Mirror that the family had been in discussion with the owner of the lot and that the owner seemed receptive to the idea. He also said Emma Jones had spoken to some members of the Board of Alders.  The Board of Alders voted last year to rename the corner of Murphy Street and Grand Avenue the “Emma Jones Justice for Malik” corner.  At the memorial service on Monday, friends and family of Malik shared stories and poems.  Tawana Galberth, who attended high school with Malik, vividly remembers the day she heard about his death. She was sitting with some friends from school, watching footage of OJ Simpson being chased, when the program was interrupted by the breaking news that Jones had been shot and killed by an East Haven police officer. “I went bananas,” she said.  Galberth recalled meeting Malik Jones on her first day of high school. Her own brother had just died, and Jones, she said, reminded her of him.  “Yes, we should all send all the money here to build a foundation to support what Malik stood for. Malik stood for righteousness. What he did in school … He wrote about nice things. He wrote about changing the community,” she said.  “[Malik] wasn’t somebody out here in these streets, making a mess. He was somebody who could have been the next mayor, governor, president … he was robbed of his potential to be,” she said.  ...read more read less