timeo Diamond Belmonte and her blended family of seven brothers, there is no “half” or “one step.” Vincent Belmonte was just her brother, smart and loved sports, games and growing vegetables. He dreams of becoming a YouTuber and starting a business with his siblings to teach people in Cleveland how to take care of their gardens.
Diamond and her siblings participated in the now-familiar ceremony when they were shot and killed by a police officer during an attempted traffic stop in East Cleveland, Ohio, on January 5, 2021. They first mourned, then marched, bringing Vincent's case into the spotlight. They were devastated when authorities deemed his death justified, but as attention faded and their brother became one of 29 people killed in the state's fatal police shootings that year, they learned to live together.
I first met Diamond and her family at Vincent's funeral and followed them for more than three years, capturing on camera the aftermath we rarely see: the struggle to balance grief with life's responsibilities. The struggle, the absence of loved ones, the fight to keep going despite new anxieties and small epiphanies.
“When you go through something so tragic, you really learn different responses to trauma,” Diamond said. “And healing from it, it comes from different aspects, different ways.”
In February 2021, I sat down and talked with Vincent's stepbrother, De'Jour Duckworth, for the first time. He lost 15 pounds in a month. Still, he smiles when he talks about his fondest memories of Vincent.
Then Dejour's voice dropped, and he reminded himself that Vincent's death was not his fault. His last conversation with Vincent was a phone call two days before the shooting, which weighed heavily on him. He asked Vincent to spend some time at his family's farm, about an hour south. They were both 19 at the time and grappling with the responsibilities and mental health challenges of early adulthood.
“I told him, 'Brother, your injury will go away soon,'” Dejour said. “I told him, but it's not like I wished for death or anything… It was just, it was a lot to really process because, damn, it was like the system took my brother away.”
Vincent's relatives are still reeling from his death. Anger and pain filled the air. As the months passed, however, the protests became more like a celebration of Vinson's life.
Regarding the protest on April 20, 2021, Vincent's family decided not to march and chant slogans. This time, they bought dozens of flowers and gave them to drivers passing by on Euclid Avenue.
Diamond remembers how Vincent lit up a room when he walked in. When the driver stopped in the middle of the road, she and her mother, Nikki Duckworth, ran toward them waving bouquets. They told them the flowers were from Vincent.
In October 2021, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that a Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict Larry McDonald, the East Cleveland police officer who shot Vincent.
According to state investigators, McDonald tried to pull Vincent over to get at the loud muffler. Vincent sped away and crashed the car before escaping on foot. McDonald told investigators that Vincent reached for his gun as he ran away. McDonald then opened fire, hitting Vincent several times.
McDonald said he accidentally turned off his body camera while chasing Vinson, so the specifics of the shooting remain unclear. Police found a gun in Vinson's hoodie pocket. Yost concluded that McDonald's use of deadly force was justified.
The news that McDonald would not be charged in Vincent's killing sent waves of grief through his family. The decision was made about a week before Halloween, so rather than protest again, Diamond decided to organize a “Candy or Suitcase” event in Vincent's name.
After Vincent died, Diamond said she started having panic attacks. She became so anxious that she would dig “holes” in the skin of her face. Sometimes seeing a police car makes her angry and nervous, leaving her speechless.
“Whenever I see a police shooting or anything like that, I have to stay away from social media, like, don't watch the news, certain things just to protect me because some things actually make me feel highly anxious,” she says.
MacDonald, the officer who shot Vincent, was in the news again in 2023 when Resigned. At the time, he was one of 18 current and former East Cleveland police officers indicted in an investigation into public corruption and civil rights violations. MacDonald is accused of lying about his role in a pursuit that led to a crash. In April, he was charged again in another fatal crash. He has pleaded not guilty and told me he does not comment on ongoing cases.
Although McDonald was not charged in Vincent's killing, Diamond and her family believe their protest helped shine a light on systemic problems with East Cleveland police.
This year, my family and I were at the Diamond house for a Memorial Day picnic. She kept a close eye on the chops on the grill as she told me how Vincent's death had changed her relationship with her brothers.
“I thought I knew all my brothers,” she said. “I realized after Vinny died that I didn't really know them as well as I thought I would. Then I had to take the time to really connect with each one, like one-on-one. It made me appreciate us even more Relationship.
This year has been slightly better for Diamond.
“Even after everything I've been through, I still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder,” Diamond said. “For the first two and a half to three years, I didn't really go out like this. This was the first year that I really lived like a normal person.
Diamond's birthday is a few days after Vincent's, so she celebrates him every year at her birthday party. Vincent will be 23 years old this year. She said she would still throw a party for him, but she also wanted to celebrate herself.
“It's okay to be sad,” Diamond said. “But how long will you let sadness overcome you? You will become sad. You will feel sad about everything. You will be depressed. It will change you. In the end you won't even know who you are. At some point, you love Love that person more than yourself? You still have to live. You just have to learn it again in a different way.