|
Video
shows
Los
Angeles
police
shooting
homeless
man dead
Reuters)
- A
video
posted
online
shows
Los
Angeles
police
scuffling
with and
shooting
a
homeless
man
during a
confrontation,
The Los
Angeles
Times
reported
on its
web
site.
The
video,
posted
on
Facebook,
shows
several
uniformed
Los
Angeles
Police
Department
officers
scuffling
with a
man in a
downtown
area
where
homeless
people
pitch
tents at
night
known as
skid
row.
Once on
the
ground,
the man
continues
struggling,
at which
point
several
shots
are
fired.
A series
of
civilian
deaths
at the
hands of
police
in the
past
year has
become a
touchstone
for
trouble
race
relations
in the
United
States,
most
notably
in
Ferguson,
Missouri,
when an
unarmed
teen-ager
was shot
and
killed
by a
police
officer,
triggering
weeks of
protests
and some
rioting.
A grand
jury
cleared
the
officer
of
wrongdoing.
The
homeless
man in
the
video
was
declared
dead at
a
hospital
shortly
after
the
shooting,
the
Times
reported,
citing
police
spokesman
Sgt.
Barry
Montgomery.
Police
could
not be
reached
by
Reuters
to
confirm
the
report.
The man
has not
yet been
identified.
Witnesses
gave
varying
accounts
about
the
shooting,
with
some
saying
the man
had
reached
for one
of the
officer's
guns and
one
saying
he heard
an
officer
saying
"He's
got my
gun."
Other
witnesses
said the
police
had used
a taser
on the
man
before
shooting
him.
Reached
by the
Times,
Police
Commission
President
Steve
Soboroff
said "My
heart
just
started
pounding
just
watching"
the
video.
"These
situations
are just
so
horrific."
Soboroff
said
whether
the man
tried to
take an
officer's
gun was
a
critical
matter
in the
shooting.
"To me,
that
would be
the only
explanation
that
something
would
happen
that
quickly,"
the
Times
quoted
him as
saying.
Soboroff
said the
LAPD,
its
independent
inspector
general
and the
district
attorney's
office
would
all
investigate
the
shooting
"very,
very
carefully,"
the
newspaper
reported.
Police
were
originally
called
to the
area to
investigate
a
robbery.
(Reporting
by Chris
Michaud;
Editing
by Nick
Macfie) |