The colorful rainbow sculptures at the entrance to the Imperial Beach Pier were lit by the somber orange glow of candlelight Sunday evening as a little over a dozen people gathered to hold a vigil for Gary Gates.
Just before Christmas, a San Diego County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Gates, a member of the local unhoused community, near the pier during a crowded indigenous winter festival.
The shooting has left many in Imperial Beach mourning Gates’ loss and has drawn new scrutiny to how sheriff’s deputies respond to people experiencing mental health crises…