LAPD releases video showing suspect with gun before shooting

This Oct. 1, 2016 frame from security camera video, released by the Los Angeles Police Department and posted on its website on Oct. 4, shows a suspect holding what appears to be a gun in the moments before he was fatally shot by officers in a police killing that has generated widespread protests. Police said the video supports the account Chief Charlie Beck gave Monday justifying the fatal shooting of Carnell Snell. Beck said Snell, 18, had a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun in one hand and turned toward officers when they fired. (Los Angeles Police Department via AP)
This Oct. 1, 2016 frame from security camera video, released by the Los Angeles Police Department and posted on its website on Oct. 4, shows a suspect holding what appears to be a gun in the moments before he was fatally shot by officers in a police killing that has generated widespread protests. (Los Angeles Police Department via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police released surveillance video Tuesday showing an 18-year-old Black suspect running from police while holding what appears to be a gun in his left hand just before he was fatally shot by officers in a police killing that has generated widespread protests.
The footage shows a man wearing sweat pants and sweat shirt crouching behind an SUV and pulling a handgun from his waistband. He then tucks the gun back into his waistband and runs around the corner of a strip mall as officers run after him.
The footage posted to the police department’s YouTube channel does not show officers shoot Carnell Snell. But police said the video supports the account Chief Charlie Beck gave Monday justifying the shooting.
Beck said Snell had a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun in one hand and turned toward officers when they fired Saturday. Protesters had demanded the release of the video.
“While the Los Angeles Police Department has a long standing practice of not releasing video evidence pending administrative and criminal investigations, the Chief is exercising his discretion to release video in the interest of public safety,” police said in a statement released at the same time as the video.
The video was made public just as Black Lives Matter organizers gathered Tuesday morning to protest Snell’s killing at a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission. The board of civilian overseers convened at midmorning as demonstrators interrupted speakers and shouted for Beck’s resignation.
The 45-second clip is the only surveillance footage connected to the shooting, though detectives are searching for more, according to Officer Sal Ramirez, a police spokesman. He declined comment on when Snell was shot after disappearing around the corner where the shooting occurred.
Officers tried to pull over a car Snell was because it had temporary paper license plates that did not match the year of the vehicle. Beck said that was a possible indication to officers of a stolen car and something commonly seen in vehicles used by criminals for drive-by shootings.
Snell, seated in the car’s back seat, looked at officers and then ducked down “as if to hide from them,” Beck said.
When officers tried to pull the car over, Snell jumped out holding his waistband and the foot pursuit began, Beck said.
After police chased Snell for several hundred yards, Snell took a gun from his waistband and turned in the direction of the pursuing officers, prompting the shooting, Beck said.
The chief also addressed the fatal shooting over the weekend of an unidentified Hispanic man. Beck said the man pointed a replica that looked like a real gun at police and officers opened fire because they feared for their lives.
Protesters demand the firing of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck over a police-involved shooting of a Black man over the weekend during a news conference at LAPD headquarters on Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. The chief disclosed details of Saturday's shooting of Carnell Snell, in South Los Angeles and a separate fatal police shooting of a Hispanic man Sunday amid heightened tensions over police shootings involving Blacks and other minorities in California and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Protesters demand the firing of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck over a police-involved shooting of a Black man over the weekend during a news conference at LAPD headquarters on Monday, Oct. 3, 2016.  (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

The shootings come amid heightened tensions over police actions involving black people and other minorities across the country.
Snell was the third Black man in five days to die in confrontations with police in Southern California.
Last Tuesday, Alfred Olango was fatally shot by an officer in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon when Olango took a “shooting stance” and pointed at an officer with what turned out to be a 4-inch vape pen — an electronic cigarette device.
On Friday, Reginald Thomas died after being shot with a Taser by police in Pasadena. He was armed with a knife and was described by family members as mentally ill.
Meanwhile, the family of a Black man killed by police in Sacramento in July demanded murder charges Monday against two officers heard on a dash-cam video talking about trying to hit the man with their police cruiser before he was shot 14 times.
__
AP writers Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content
Verified by MonsterInsights