Africa
March 2, 2015 10:37 AM   Subscribe

On Sunday afternoon, March 1, a man who went by the name Africa was shot to death by a member of the LAPD. (tw: graphic video, NSFW language). Africa had been homeless, and was recently on the street after spending 10 years in a mental health facility.

The encounter was recorded by body cameras worn by at least one of the officers involved in the incident.

The LAPD Twitter feed claims that LAPD officers had attempted to subdue Africa during an altercation near his tent by taser, but when Africa continued to resist, there was a struggle ofer an officer's handgun.

It is not known how many times the officers fired, although at least five shots can be heard on the video recording that captured the shooting, at close range.

About Skid Row
posted by roomthreeseventeen (5 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is a sad, crappy thing that has happened for sure but it doesn't seem like it's clear yet that there's something beyond "this sad, crappy thing happened" here to make this a great idea for a post. -- cortex



 
I admit to not knowing anything about police tactics, or dealing with violent, mentally-ill people, but it seems that 5 officers with clubs should be able to subdue an unarmed man without shooting him. It never should've gotten to this point.
posted by cell divide at 10:45 AM on March 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


It looks like they initially were trying to break up a fight between two people. I can't tell from the video what really happened, but in that case they were at close enough quarters that the victim attempting to take an officer's gun is at least plausible.

I'm no police apologist by any means, but this is not one of those videos where it is immediately obvious that the officers did anything wrong.
posted by chimaera at 10:50 AM on March 2, 2015


I'm no police apologist by any means, but this is not one of those videos where it is immediately obvious that the officers did anything wrong.

IMHO, shooting at someone five times within three feet is always wrong, if you have been trained as a police officer to disarm someone, and there are at lest four of you.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:52 AM on March 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


I don't actually think the police are trained to disarm people.
posted by corb at 10:55 AM on March 2, 2015


this is not one of those videos where it is immediately obvious that the officers did anything wrong

Six trained police officers can restrain a homeless man without resorting to lethal force. It is incredibly obvious that the police did something wrong.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 10:56 AM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


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