Samuel Om, 21

Samuel Om, a 21-year-old Asian man, was fatally shot at the intersection of West 7th Street and Westmore Avenue in the Westlake area about 12:15 a.m. Monday, May 13.

According to a statement released by the California Highway Patrol, officers saw a gold Mercedes heading east on 7th Street from Vermont Avenue. The officers pulled the car over on suspicion that the driver was driving drunk. Shortly after, Om exited the vehicle and approached the officers while pointing a gun at them, the statement said. Fearing for their lives, the officers fired several shots at Om, according to the statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Comments

[S. Jones]

This is absolutely unacceptable to me! I am all for law enforcement protecting themselves, but I believe that just one shot in the right place is enough to apprehend a suspect whose intentions are not clear. If they know someone has a weapon, they have every right to fire as many times as they want, but if they pull someone over for suspicion of driving drunk, they know that they are incoherent and not aware of their actions. Shoot him in the leg or someone that will "freeze" him and the appropriate actions can be taken. Another senseless death by the hands of our protection...

[Worried American]

Cops use 9mm bullets, which do not have alot of take down power. You would need to shoot multiple times, and between two officers, Im sure they only shot 3 or 4 rounds off each. Can you blame the officers for trying to protect themselves?

[Dennis Lim]

Unlike the movies show, firing a gun is hardly precise exercise.

So if a cop feels endangered and needs to put down someone they shoot for the largest possible target, because there's a good chance their bullet may miss.

They call this shooting for center mass, the torso in other words. Unfortunately, it's also very lethal since most of your major organs are here.

The bottom line is if most cops could shoot the gun out of a guys hand they would, but you might as well wish for forcefields while you're on that whimsical thought.

[Kevin Gillie]

I just wanted to respond S.Jones' comment. Put yourself in the situation the cops were in. You pull over a man you 'suspect' is drinking and driving, he gets out his vehicle and points a gun at you. What the hell would you do??? Even if you did shoot him in the leg I don't understand how that would "freeze" someone, he still has a gun in his hand!

I'm extremely frustrasted with members of the public like S.Jones who obviously have no idea what daily rigors cops go through. They are heavily scrutinized by media, the public and also from within. They are not perfect but 99.9% of the time they do a wonderful job. They are employed for a reason, to keep the normal non-gun-toting citizens safe because the world is not as pink and fluffy as you my think.

Basically what I'm saying is go to your local PD and get onto a citizen program, or do a ride-a-long so that you have some idea about police work, and then you can pass judgement.

[L]

I would like to say I personally knew Sam. Details of this incident as portrayed by the report are not entirely accurate. I have eyewitness account. 1. Sam was in the passenger seat. 2. Most of the shots took place after Sam was on the floor.

To me cops are too jittery or too confident they can hide behind their badge ala Bart incident up north. They could be scared just by the fact you have a dark object on your belt, shoot you, kill you and then determine that oops it was only a cellphone. Oh well my mistake.