zombola
03-03-2015, 12:12 PM
(Reuters) - Los Angeles police officers trying to subdue a robbery suspect in the city's skid row section shot and killed the man as he tried to grab an officer's gun during a scuffle that was captured on video, police said on Monday.
The dead man was reported by the Los Angeles Times to have been a homeless individual known by his street name, Africa, who according to witnesses at the scene had been living in a tent for a few months after a period in a mental health facility.
Footage of Sunday's confrontation, widely circulated on the Internet and replayed on television news, marked the latest in a string of incidents that have put police around the country under heightened scrutiny over the use of lethal force.
Local civil rights activists called on the city police commission to hold a special hearing on the exercise of police force on skid row, a 50-block area that ranks as one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in United States.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that the man in question was a robbery suspect who began fighting with officers as they tried to take him into custody. It said he continued to resist arrest, even as officers tried to subdue him with a Taser electric stun gun, and they fell to the sidewalk.
"While on the ground, the suspect and officers struggled over one of the officer's handguns and then an officer-involved shooting occurred," the department said. Paramedics pronounced the suspect dead at the scene, it added, while two of the officers were treated for minor injuries.
A video recorded by an onlooker shows the man swinging his arms wildly at a group of policemen before he is knocked to the sidewalk beside a collection of plastic tarps and sleeping bags, then four officers struggling to restrain him. Two more subdue a woman who picks up a fallen billy club and appears to brandish it at police.
As the struggle continues on the sidewalk, someone in the video is heard repeatedly shouting "Drop the gun!" and several gunshots ring out, as angry bystanders gather at the scene shouting at police, "They just shot that man," and "Ain't nobody got no gun."
Police said an internal investigation will be conducted in coordination with its Office of Inspector General and will be presented to police commissioners to determine if the use of deadly force was justified. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office also will review the incident.
Police Commission President Steve Soboroff told the Los Angeles Times that when he saw the video of the shooting: "My heart just started pounding ... These situations are just so horrific."
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, an officers union, issued a statement urging the public to reserve judgment until all the facts were known, noting that the video suggests the officers believed they "were in life-threatening danger."
(By Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by Chris Michaud and Laila Kearney from New York; Editing by Nick Macfie, Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Susan Heavey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLMEB_q0htk
The dead man was reported by the Los Angeles Times to have been a homeless individual known by his street name, Africa, who according to witnesses at the scene had been living in a tent for a few months after a period in a mental health facility.
Footage of Sunday's confrontation, widely circulated on the Internet and replayed on television news, marked the latest in a string of incidents that have put police around the country under heightened scrutiny over the use of lethal force.
Local civil rights activists called on the city police commission to hold a special hearing on the exercise of police force on skid row, a 50-block area that ranks as one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in United States.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that the man in question was a robbery suspect who began fighting with officers as they tried to take him into custody. It said he continued to resist arrest, even as officers tried to subdue him with a Taser electric stun gun, and they fell to the sidewalk.
"While on the ground, the suspect and officers struggled over one of the officer's handguns and then an officer-involved shooting occurred," the department said. Paramedics pronounced the suspect dead at the scene, it added, while two of the officers were treated for minor injuries.
A video recorded by an onlooker shows the man swinging his arms wildly at a group of policemen before he is knocked to the sidewalk beside a collection of plastic tarps and sleeping bags, then four officers struggling to restrain him. Two more subdue a woman who picks up a fallen billy club and appears to brandish it at police.
As the struggle continues on the sidewalk, someone in the video is heard repeatedly shouting "Drop the gun!" and several gunshots ring out, as angry bystanders gather at the scene shouting at police, "They just shot that man," and "Ain't nobody got no gun."
Police said an internal investigation will be conducted in coordination with its Office of Inspector General and will be presented to police commissioners to determine if the use of deadly force was justified. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office also will review the incident.
Police Commission President Steve Soboroff told the Los Angeles Times that when he saw the video of the shooting: "My heart just started pounding ... These situations are just so horrific."
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, an officers union, issued a statement urging the public to reserve judgment until all the facts were known, noting that the video suggests the officers believed they "were in life-threatening danger."
(By Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by Chris Michaud and Laila Kearney from New York; Editing by Nick Macfie, Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Susan Heavey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLMEB_q0htk