LOS ANGELES — A fatal weekend police shooting of an unarmed man who family members say was autistic prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California on Monday to urge the Los Angeles Police Department to re-examine its policies.
Steven Eugene Washington was shot by gang enforcement officers Allan Corrales and George Diego near Los Angeles' Koreatown shortly after midnight Saturday after he approached them and appeared to remove something from his waistband, police said. No weapon was recovered.
Corrales and Diego heard a loud noise while driving in their patrol car and turned around to see Washington. The officers said the 27-year-old was looking around suspiciously and manipulating something in his waist area.
When the officers tried to stop Washington to investigate, he quickly approached them and seemed to pull something from his waistband, Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger told reporters at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
Each officer fired once and Washington was hit in the head, police said.
The officers fired "with the belief that he was arming himself, and in defense of their lives," Paysinger said.
Corrales and Diego called paramedics, who pronounced Washington dead at the scene.
ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Ramona Ripston said the organization was deeply troubled by the shooting.
"The initial news coverage of the incident shed little light on why lethal force was necessary when officers were not responding to any report of criminal activity and had no reason to suspect Mr. Washington of a crime just because they heard a loud noise as they were driving past," Ripston said in a statement.
"We urge the LAPD to go beyond a one-time investigation examining the conduct of the officers, and take a broader look at changes in department policy and training that could help prevent such a tragedy from recurring," she said.
Family members said at a news conference Saturday that Washington was autistic and had never shown any signs of violence or had any trouble with police.
"They assured us that they are investigating, they also assured us that they care, so all we want is answers," aunt Vickie Thompson said.
The LAPD's Force Investigation Division and the district attorney's office are investigating the shooting.
Corrales has been with the LAPD for nearly seven years, and Diego for nearly eight years, police said.
Source:AFP
Showing posts with label Michael Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Jackson. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Michael Jackson Doc Interrupted CPR to Hide Drugs: Report
Dr. Conrad Murray, who long treated Jackson and allegedly administered lethal amounts of the drug propofol to the star, stopped the process of CPR so he could hand another man drug vials to stash away, Jackson's logistics director Alberto Alvarez told investigators, according to the AP.
Jackson died June 25 from an overdose of propofol and two other drugs Murray gave him -- Jackson reportedly referred to the propofol as his "milk" and used the drug to sleep, even though the powerful sedative is meant to be used in hospitals under the supervision of a doctor, experts said.
According to Alvarez, Murray interrupted CPR on Jackson to instruct Alvarez to put vials of drugs in a bag. The statement was questioned by Murray's lawyer, who alleged Alvarez did not mention the vials in an earlier statement.
"Alberto, Alberto, come quickly," Murray said, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press. "He had a reaction, he had a bad reaction."
Alvarez told investigators he saw Jackson with his mouth and eyes open with no sign of life, an IV attached to the singer's body as Murray performed mouth-to-mouth while Alvarez did CPR.
Jackson's children, Prince and Paris, cried as they saw the doctor trying to save their father, according to Alvarez. They were quickly ushered away.
Alvarez said Murray then told him to remove an IV bag from a stand and put it in a blue canvas bag. He did, and noticed the bag had a connector with a milky white substance in it. Alvarez didn't say what happened to the bags, nor did he identify what was in the vials.
Two days after Jackson's death, under several hours of questioning by police, Murray eventually directed them to a closet in Jackson's bedroom. In it, they found propofol and other sedatives in a bag.
Murray, a Texas-based physician, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in February in Los Angeles.
Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson...in the commission of an unlawful act, not a felony," a statement from the L.A. District Attorney's office said at the time of the hearing.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office has asked a court to suspend Murray's license pending the outcome of criminal proceedings against him.
Source:nbclosangeles.com/
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