A protest broke out in southern Los Angeles shortly after police shot and killed a black man on Monday afternoon.
Deputies attempted to stop a black man riding a bicycle for a vehicle code violation, but he took off running. When the police caught up with the man, he punched an officer in the face and dropped a bundle of items that he was holding, sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean said during a press conference. One of the items that fell to the ground was a “black semi-automatic handgun,” Dean added.
Two officers subsequently opened fire on the man, and he later died. The police have not released the man’s identity, but his family and the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter said the man is Dijon Kizzee, according to KTLA5, a local outlet.
“We still have to conduct our interviews of the investigating officers to see exactly what happened and transpired during the deputy-involved-shooting,” Dean explained, responding to questions about the use of force. “But if this individual was reaching for a semi-automatic handgun, I would suggest that, you know, that’s probably why deadly force was important.”
The shooting is under investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Internal Affairs Bureau, which is standard procedure for when an officer kills a civilian, the Sheriff’s Department said, according to the New York Times.
Hours after the shooting occurred, more than a hundred people showed up at the scene protesting the Los Angeles Police Department. One person was arrested for unlawful assembly, a spokeswoman for the department said.
The shooting comes at a time where police conduct toward minority communities has come under intense public scrutiny. Millions of people in the United States have protested in the streets following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, in addition to the shooting of Jacob Blake, whose family says he is paralyzed from the waist down, all of which happened at the hands of law enforcement. They are speaking out against police brutality and claims of systemic problems within the country’s law enforcement apparatus. In many cases, however, the demonstrations have spun out into violence.
