Graphic Video: LAPD Officers Shoot Man Five Times in Broad Daylight
[There was a video here]
A video posted to Facebook Sunday night shows several LAPD cops struggling with a man before eventually shooting him on the street in downtown L.A. The man, still unidentified, was reportedly homeless.
According to Officer Jack Richter, police were responding to a call regarding an altercation between two people on Sunday morning.
As several of the officers wrestled the man to the street, a woman approaches from behind and grabs a baton one cop appears to have dropped. He runs up to the woman shouting, "You have my stick! You have my stick!" before two officers slam her to the ground.
Still struggling to subdue the first man, it looks as though officers begin to taser him. One of the officers is then heard repeatedly shouting, "he's going for my gun!" before five shots are fired.
The original video was reportedly uploaded to Facebook by a man named Anthony Blackburn. As of this posting, it has been viewed upwards of 100,000 times. It has not yet been confirmed whether the shooting was fatal.
Update 2, 03/02/15, 7:45 a.m.: The LAPD has confirmed that the man officers shot and killed yesterday was homeless. LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery told KTLA that police were called to the scene, in LA's Skid Row, after a reported robbery:
On Sunday evening, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told reporters that when the officers arrived "they saw the individual they believed was a suspect and attempted to take him into custody."
A struggle ensued, during which police used a Taser on the man several times in an unsuccessful effort to subdue him, Smith said.
"It became a struggle over one of the officer's weapons," the commander said, referring to a firearm. The man was then shot by police, Smith said. It was unknown how many times he was struck. Shortly afterward, he was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles firefighters.
Smith also told the Los Angeles Timesthat two officers and one sergeant fired their weapons; one officer's body camera apparently recorded the incident.
Witnesses told the Times that the man killed was known locally as "Africa," and had apparently been living in a tent on Skid Row for a number of months "after spending a long stretch in a mental health facility."
"That man never was a threat," Lonnie Franklin, who claims to have witnessed the shooting, told the paper. "The amount of officers present at the time could have subdued him."
Update: According to reports, the man was taken to a hospital; he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.