"These are mothers and there is something very, very personal for a mother to have to lose her child under circumstances where we think our children are going to be protected," Neil-Demir said.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin spoke at the rally about the need to pass federal police reform legislation like the Justice in Policing Act, which would end racial and religious profiling by the police, mandate training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement and require law enforcement to collect data on all investigatory activities.
"We know that there are systemic problems in our policing system that we need to address," Durbin said on Twitter after the event.
The mother of 21-year-old Abel Rosiles Jr, who died in the ICU after Round Lake Beach police allegedly used excessive force while arresting him inside a gas station June 10, was at the rally holding a picture of her son.
The Rosiles family set up a GoFundMe to help the family pay for funeral expenses. Since June 18, it has raised over $40,000 of its $60,000 goal.