Los Angeles Police Department officers shot and killed a homeless man Sunday (March 1) during a confrontation on a downtown city street.
Officials says the officers encountered the man while responding to a robbery call. Local media quote police as saying the man was resisting arrest, and tried to grab one of the officers weapons. The officer then shot the man.
“During that altercation at least one less than lethal device, a taser, was deployed. However at this time we still do not know if that taser did strike the suspect. After that the struggle continued and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Barry Montgomery.
Video of the incident was posted online and shows the officers scuffling with a homeless man. Once on the ground, the man continues struggling, at which point several shots are fired.
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.
“About 5 officers wrestled him down to the ground, he managed to get up. They took him down again, then they beat him while he was on the ground. Next thing I knew heard one shot. Then I looked over across the street I seen 3 more shots being fired at the guy he was laying down on the ground,” said an unidentified witness.
The incident appears to have happened in downtown Los Angeles where homeless people pitch tents at night known as skid row.
A series of civilian deaths at the hands of police in the past year has become a touchstone for troubled 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 Los Angeles 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.
Reuters wires