The Los Angeles Police Department has released a statement in the shooting death of a man in the city’s Skid Row section, which Buzzfeed has posted. It reads, in part:
At approximately noon today, a private citizen placed a 9-1-1 emergency call to report a robbery near 545 South San Pedro Street in downtown Los Angeles. LAPD Communications Division subsequently dispatched Central Area officers to the location who located the suspect and attempted to contact him. After making contact, however, the suspect began fighting and physically resisting the officers attempts to take him into custody.
The officers attempted to use a TASER to subdue him but the suspect continued to fight and resist the officers and fell to the ground. While on the ground, the suspect and officers struggled over one of the officer’s handguns and then an officer-involved shooting occurred. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded and pronounced the suspect deceased at the scene.
LAFD paramedics then transported the suspect’s body to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Officer. Two of the responding officers involved in the incident suffered minor injuries and were treated and released.
Neither the suspect nor the victims are identified by name in the press release.
Earlier:
Thank goodness for citizen journalists who are increasingly catching police misconduct (and what some might consider murder) on cell phones.
Earlier this afternoon, LAPD officers responded to a call about an altercation in downtown L.A., in the area known as “skid row.” One of the suspects – a homeless man – resisted arrest, however the officers were able to gain control and eventually subdued the suspect down on the ground.
Soon after, one police officer took it upon himself to shoot the suspect, not once, but five times. According to reports, the man died.
