Subject: Statist Animals On Video: LAPD Shoot and Kill Homeless Man Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:37 pm
Below is a videotape that is likely to be at the center of a growing controversy over the shooting of a homeless man by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The officers say that they first tried to use a taser, which proved ineffective, and that the man then struggled with an officer over his service weapon. Various officers reportedly fired at the man who was declared dead at the scene. The man has only been identified by his street name, “Africa.”
The officers were from LAPD’s Central Division and Safer Cities Initiative and were responding to a call concerning a possible robbery. The videotape also shows a woman grabbing a police baton and being disarmed. There are five shots that can be heard on the videotape below. Two officers and a sergeant reportedly fired at the man. One can also hear officers scream “drop the gun.” The question is how much can be seen of the critical moment when the man allegedly grabbed for the service weapon. Notably, one account says that an officer had a body camera. That may help clear up the differing accounts.