Two Fatal South LA Shootings Bring the Southern California Total to Four Police Shooting Deaths in Six Days
By James Tyner
Two men were shot and killed by police this weekend, leading to protests Saturday and Sunday in South Los Angeles. These shootings mark the third and fourth deaths caused by officer-involved shootings in Southern California in six days.
Eighteen-year-old Carnell Snell Jr. was shot by a Los Angeles police officer around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon near 107th Street and Western Avenue, the Los Angeles Times reported. He had been armed with a loaded handgun that he pointed toward officers, Chief Charlie Beck said at a press conference Monday morning. He had run from a car that officers believed was stolen, CBS News wrote.
Snell’s mother, Monique Morgan, said on Saturday that her son was shot five times, according to KTLA. The back gate of his home had six bullet holes.
At 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, the LAPD responded to a report of a man with a gun near 45th Street and Alcot Avenue. The man was seen near the scene and matched the description police were given: a Hispanic man about 18 to 22 years old, the Times reported. He pointed a weapon at an officer and was shot by police, according to KTLA. Paramedics were called around 5 p.m. and the man was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police said that the weapon found at the scene was a replica handgun with the tip painted black, not an actual firearm.
The officers involved wore body cameras on Sunday, the Times reported, but the LAPD has not yet released footage of the incident. Chief Beck said at a press conference that the body camera video matched officers’ accounts. It’s not clear where officers wore body cameras as Snell was shot.
Jamie McBride, the director of a union representing Los Angeles police officers, told the Times that if anyone points a gun at an officer, “we will shoot you.”
A news conference regarding the shootings on Monday morning ended abruptly after protesters in the lobby shouted “black lives matter” and demanded that Chief Beck be fired. Police threatened to arrest the protesters for “unlawful assembly” if they did not disperse.
Over the weekend, protests erupted near 108th Street and Western Avenue on Saturday and Sunday nights, blocking traffic near the intersection, the Times reported. Some buildings near the protest were vandalized with graffiti.
Protesters also threw eggs at Mayor Eric Garcetti’s house Saturday night, according to the Times.
These deaths follow two others in Southern California earlier in the week, according to CBS News. On Tuesday, Alfred Olango was shot in El Cajon, near San Diego, after assuming a “shooting stance” and pointing a vape pen at an officer. Reginald Thomas, who was reportedly high and mentally ill, died after being shocked with a Taser in Pasadena on Friday.
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Updated 11:47 a.m. PT on Oct. 3 with comment from Jamie McBride and new information from an LAPD press conference.
Updated 2:06 p.m. PT on Oct. 3: An earlier version of this story misstated the race of the victim and the location of Sunday’s shooting. This post has also been updated to include further information about body cameras and the replica firearm involved in Sunday’s shooting.
Originally published at www.uscannenbergmedia.com on October 3, 2016.
