Homeless Man Shot and Killed By LA Cops

Video first published by Anthony Blackburn A graphic video posted online Sunday shows Los Angeles Police Department officers shooting a homeless man during a dramatic struggle. The video begins with a cluster of officers, seven in total, fighting with the man on the sidewalk. Two squad cars can be seen in the camera’s view and the area of town appears to be a central hub for the homeless. Tarps line the street and other people are milling around in the background of the scene. As the officers are struggling with the man, a woman is seen holding a stick or a rod to square up to swing it. At that point, two officers move towards her and throw her on the ground and handcuff her. As an officer and the man go to the ground, the officer yells to another, “give me my stick.” But the struggle continues and the officer can be heard saying several times, “he’s going for my gun.” Five shots ring out as the officers back away and hold their weapons on the motionless man. It is unclear if the same officer fired all of the shots or if other officers began firing after the initial shot. After the shooting, a crowd gathered behind the cameraman grows agitated. “Y’all guys killed that man,” the man filming the incident is heard saying. The video was uploaded to Facebook by a man named Anthony Blackburn. The caption on the entry is “Homeless man just killed by police minutes ago downtown L.A.” “And there’s nine motherfucking police out there,” he said. “Ain’t nobody got no fucking guns.” The full details of the shooting are not yet clear. TheDC has not confirmed whether the shooting did indeed occur on Sunday, though other traffic on social media suggests that it did. It is also not certain that the man died as a result of the shooting. Towards the end of the video, the officers begin to secure the scene. The officer who had been on top of the man moves towards people in the crowd, many of whom are filming. The man behind the camera identifies the officer, who is black, and says “that’s the one that killed him right there” before barraging him with other insults. The homeless man’s race cannot be determined from the video.