Police fatally shot a homeless man during a “brutal” videotaped struggle in which an officer cried out that the man had grabbed his gun, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said on Monday.
Video showed the man reaching toward the officer’s waistband, Beck said. The officer’s gun was found partly cocked and jammed with a round of ammunition in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon.
“You can hear the young officer, who was primarily engaged in the confrontation saying that ‘He has my gun. He has my gun,’” Beck said. “He says it several times, with conviction.”
Photo: AFP
Then three other officers opened fire.
The man was black, as was the officer who was just short of completing his first probationary year on the force, police said.
Beck’s narrative of the shooting, including photographs from video showing the condition of the gun, was rare, emerging just 24 hours after an officer-involved shooting. It came amid heightened attention to killings by police officers that have led to protests, some violent, across the country.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he and the police chief needed to respond quickly to reassure residents that there is a robust investigation into the shooting, which occurred in the downtown area that is home to the city’s highest concentration of homeless people.
Video of the shooting was caught from multiple perspectives, including two witnesses recording on their smartphones and cameras worn by two of the officers who fired their weapons.
The American Civil Liberties Union called on the police department to quickly release footage shot by the officers’ body cameras.
Beck said the incident began when officers arrived to investigate a reported robbery, and the suspect refused to obey their commands and became combative.
A security camera outside a homeless shelter about 23m away showed the suspect pushed over a neighbors’ tent and then the two engaged in an altercation.
Paramedics showed up before police. When officers arrived, they tried to speak to the suspect, who was standing near the entrance of his tent.
The suspect then turned and jumped into his tent, and officers appeared to pull it up and over him in an attempt to roust him from inside. The suspect jumped out of the tent flailing, kicking and spinning in circles, before ending up on the ground.
Beck said officers were in a tough situation and did not know if the suspect was arming himself.
Stun guns fired at the man had “appeared to have little effect and he continued to violently resist,” Beck said.
Exactly what happened in the last moments of the struggle is unclear. The weapon of the young officer who yelled “he has my gun” was in a specialized holster with a rotating hood, designed to make it more difficult for someone to take it away, according to pictures provided by the police department.
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