Gun Violence Protesters Arrested on Top of Crane Near White House

Washington, D.C. police made a heartbreaking arrest last week after the father of a teenager killed in a school shooting climbed a tower crane near the White House to draw attention to gun violence.

He hung a sheet from the crane with the image of his then-17-year-old son on it facing the White House. The teenager, Joaquin Oliver, was killed four years earlier by a gunman at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

A slogan on the sheet directed at President Joe Biden said that 45,000 people “died from gun violence on your watch.”

Meanwhile, police closed off traffic in the 700 block of 15th Street NW until the father, Manuel Oliver, was coaxed down by police after about four hours on top of the 150-foot high crane.

The risk of arrest was undaunting to the parents of Joaquin Oliver. His mother, Patricia Oliver, talked to the media at the base of the crane near 15th Street and Pennsylvania Ave.

“Whatever happens, happens,” she said. Two other protesters were arrested along with her husband.

She explained the parents’ motive by saying, “We are trying to give Joaquin one more time his voice.”

Their son was one of 17 people killed by a gunman who was a former student at Stoneman Douglas High School.

A White House statement in response to the protest said, “President Biden’s heart goes out to Mr. Oliver, the other families of the Parkland shooting victims, and to all Americans who have been affected by gun violence. The president has done more to fight gun violence through executive action in his first year than any president in history, and he’s committed to keeping up that work every day he’s in the White House.”

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