The shooting death of a homeless black man by Los Angeles police has the ubiquitous “Black Lives Matter” protesters on alert. But the evidence available so far suggests that this was far from the cold-blooded murder certain leftwing elements are already claiming.
Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officers assigned to the LAPD’s Central Division and Safer Cities Initiative — a task force focused on skid row — responded to the location about noon Sunday after receiving a 911 call reporting a possible robbery.
Smith said the officers approached the man and made contact with him, at which point he “began fighting and physically resisting the officers.” The officers attempted to take him into custody and at one point, attempted to use a Taser that Smith said was “ineffective.”
The man continued to resist police, Smith said, and the man and some of the officers fell to the ground.
“At some point in there, a struggle over one of the officer’s weapons occurred,” Smith said. “At that point an officer-involved shooting happened.”
Two officers and a sergeant fired at the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Smith said.
The scuffle and shooting were caught on video by a pedestrian, though what precipitates the deadly shots is unclear. (Warning: Graphic content, explicit language)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N2DApYGHSac
Yet despite the unclear visuals, one can hear an officer yell “Drop the gun!” multiple times, suggesting a struggle over an officer’s weapon. (It does not appear that the victim had a weapon of his own.) And again via the Los Angeles Times:
An enhanced version of a video recording of Los Angeles police officers fatally shooting a homeless man on skid row Sunday appears to show the man’s hand reaching in the direction of one officer’s waistband.
A Times’ review of the video shows the officer quickly pulling away at that moment. Then, three of his colleagues open fire on the man.
It was difficult to determine whether the man’s hand actually touched the officer’s weapon.
Additionally, two officers involved were wearing body cameras, and while the footage has not yet been made public, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says it corroborates the police account. “It appears to me the officers acted compassionately up until the time when force was required,” Beck says.
The physical evidence, too, indicates a struggle:
Beck said at a press conference on Monday that there was evidence of a struggle over the officer’s gun. He said the slide on the weapon had been “partially engaged” and that “this is indicative of a struggle over a weapon.”
These facts, combined with the fact that three different officers opted to open fire on the victim, strongly suggest that the officers felt themselves in sufficient danger to merit the use of deadly force.
The LAPD is investigating, and hopes to find other video footage that — in addition to witness accounts — can help clarify what happened. But the evidence so far suggests a tragic, unfortunate, but likely justifiable shooting.