LAPD officers who shot immigrant acted 'in immediate defense of life,' Beck says

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck on Tuesday offered a detailed account of a fatal officer-involved shooting near MacArthur Park that has sparked community protests and scattered unrest.

Emphasizing that the department's internal investigation into the shooting had only just begun, Beck said initial accounts from witnesses and the involved officers indicate the officer who fired acted "in immediate defense of life."

Three officers assigned to the Rampart Division's bicycle unit were responding to a different radio call Sunday afternoon when they were flagged down by a pedestrian, who told them a man was threatening passersby with a knife nearby, Beck told the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD.

The officers rode to the corner of Sixth Street and Union Avenue, observing the man as he continued to threaten people with a knife, Beck said. They confronted him with their weapons drawn, ordering him repeatedly in English and Spanish to drop the knife, according to Beck. The man instead raised the knife over his head and advanced toward the officers, at which point one of the officers fired two rounds.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. In response to a reporter's question about whether the officers could have used nonlethal weapons to subdue the man, Beck said bicycle officers frequently do not carry with them the selection of beanbag rifles and other weapons found in a traditional patrol car. It was not immediately known whether the officers were equipped with Taser stun guns.

As with all officer-involved shootings and other serious uses of force, investigators from the department's Force Investigation Division will spend the next several months investigating and re-creating the shooting, and compiling their findings into a report.

A review board of command-level officers then advise Beck on whether the officer's tactics, decision to brandish a weapon and decision to use the weapon were appropriate. Beck, in turn, makes his recommendations to the commission, which has the final word on adjudicating incidents. The entire process frequently takes about a year to complete.

Beck said the investigation would be as transparent "as humanly possible." It is difficult, however, for the public to track such inquiries since the investigation and deliberations are confidential.

The commission's inspector general is expected to release a public summary of the commission's findings, but neglected to publish scores of the reports in recent years and is now working to dig out from the large backlog. If officers are determined to have acted outside of department policy, they can face discipline ranging from more training to dismissal.

In reference to the protests and isolated cases of bottle and rock throwing that officers have endured since the shooting, Beck said the protesters represented "a very small" part of the Rampart neighborhood. He called on "everyone in Rampart to act appropriately. This is not a time to tear the community apart." 

Four people were arrested during the demonstrations and three officers were injured.

-- Joel Rubin at LAPD headquarters

Photo: A crowd gathers at a makeshift memorial at West Sixth Street and South Union Avenue, where a 37-year-old Guatemalan day laborer was shot and killed by LAPD officers Sunday. Credit: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[jay]

Good job officers.

[Michael]

Someone coming at you with a knife is considered an acceptable form of greeting in some drug communities like East LA.

[AndreaU8]

Again Latinos are upset that they have to actually follow US laws (some big joke if you consider all the ILLEGALS here).

[oldusedcop]

An expanded presence of ICE officers would quell neighborhood violence.

[Jimmer]

It's too bad the federal government does not enforce immigration laws. This suspect would have never been in California to begin with.

[RealTalk2011]

drop the knife

[Donna]

Anyone who is protesting the officers actions should see how they would respond if someone was charging at them with a knife. Seriously, the LAPD conduct seems totally appropriate in this case!

[roovialk]

These "protests" and other unrest stem from the millions paid out by the city, to people in that area after the so called use of "excessive force" during that riot of marchers during that melee in MacArthur park a few years ago. Now everybody in the Westlake area is looking for a payday if a policeman even touches a hair on their heads. Rampart Division is lawless and having all those illegals packed into that area is confounding the situation

[boil]

the complete disregard, and disrespect of the LAPD by primarily illegal aliens is astounding. and the impotence of the LAPD, bestowed by mayor LaRaza, is also just as egregious....

[robert]

if he feared for his life why did he come close. he should stayed home this guy would be live

[Dreadnok4life]

Sounds like a good shooting to me. You don't bring a knife to a gun fight. The reporter asking the non-lethal weapon question is retarded. You NEVER use a less than lethal weapon when the suspect you are confronting has a LETHAL weapon.

[Ricardo]

It does not matter who you are...If you wave a gun or knife at a cop you will be killed. Would the people in the neighborhood like it better if the deranged person was allowed to kill innocent people????

[will i. amden]

Why did the officer have to shoot twice? Isn't once enough? Or is that officer training. Also, couldn't one of the officers shoot him in the leg, shoulder, etc.? Like they do in the movies.

[guitarlady50]

From now on, I will be skeptical of any man or woman who wants to be a police officer (because, increasingly, the likelihood of a police officer killing someone in his or her career is evident); therefore, they may want to become an officer so they can legally experience the sensation of killing someone. Please re-evaluate the defensive training techniques of the police academy.

[Bob S.]

Illegal or otherwise they did what they needed to do. Question is was it suicide by cop.

As far as protesters, when the throw rocks and bottles then they should be subject to the possibility to getting shot as well.

[Bob]

The police officers used poor judgement and their are other parts of a man's body to shoot at and not have to shoot to kill. A knife can do harm if it is thrown at someone or cut someone close by. This did not happen. A human live is precious, and not an animal to kill.

[wow]

...And if this publicly drunken man with a knife, terrorizing pedestrians had hurt someone, the police would be hero's... The joke is, one of them called the police.
Maybe this is accepted as normal behavior in Guatemala, but it don't fly here! Straighten up and fly right or GO HOME!

[trajan]

An illegal immigrant tries to attack a police officer with a knife and gets shot.
Sorry to see that he did not know how to deal with police officers in a foreign country or he had no respect for the people here. Coming here illegally cost him his life.

[David]

And people wonder why Arizona did what they did?

[BizMolotov]

Transparent? There seems to be a number of contradictions apparent here. I.e., for the public to track such inquiries since the investigation and deliberations are confidential, The commission's inspector general is expected to release a public summary of the commission's findings, but neglected to publish scores of the reports in recent years. It seems bias on Beck's part, to give a detailed account of what transpire on the day of the shooting when he was not present. After a whole year that these so-called investigations conclude witnesses have move away...people's memories have dulled and officers have had time to revised their stories. This officer involved in the shooting has a reputation in the area of harassing vendors in the area. The Police commission, which has the final word on adjudicating incidents. This so-called commission which isn't accountable to the community...only the Major who appoints them is nothing more than a rubber stamp board...without any real powers. This trajic killing at the hands of the LAPD will just be another in a continuing series of stolen lives at the hands of law enforecement in general and people of color in particular.

[HSM]

Hmmm...a man comes at you with a knife. I would definitely shoot him.

[joe]

nice censorship.

[Jim Q. Citizen]

The protesters are right. The United States is a horrible country. They should all pack up and go home immediately.

[david paul]

this is tragic. let's see what comes out of the investigation, but from all the evidence so far it seems this dead person was drunk and threatening people. he seems to have been an obvious threat to the police. i was not there so i cannot say i saw it, but from the reports it seems to be justified. then to see this riot break out near downtown LA. i think this is a sign of things to come in this city with its exploding hispanic population. i believe all we need do is look to mexico, central america, & south america to see what is in store for our major urban areas, i.e., escalating violence, criminal gang control, and more illegal immigration to support the human trafficing penchant for money, women, & drugs!

[Irwin Copper]

Trying to make the LAPD the suspect, and the suspect the victim in this case is not supported by initial reports. By calling the suspect a Guatemalan day laborer you purposely neglect to describe him for what he was in his last moments of life. The man was an armed suspect that community members were so afraid of they flagged down officers. Obviously, community members didn't think he was just another day laborer at that point, yet your paper so blatantly attempts to persuade the reader that is what he was - just a day laborer. It's insulting, inaccurate and a blatantly transparent effort to garner feelings for the suspect and the implication is he should not have been shot by police. There is an ever present anti-LAPD slant and nothing has been corroborated to indicate inappropriate conduct on the part of the police.

You got it right with the City of Bell and for that I am grateful. Try to the same quality reporting on all your endeavors and an educated public will be the better for it. Thank you.