Woman, 56, Fatally Shot By Officers In Watts Identified
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Authorities Thursday identified a woman fatally shot by three Los Angeles police officers in Watts Wednesday evening.
Brenda Williams, 56, was shot about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 10000 block of Anzac Avenue, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. She died at the scene.
Police said Williams was pointing a gun at a neighbor and refused to drop her weapon when ordered.
The shooting was one of three involving LAPD officers on Wednesday -- two of them in Watts and one of them in Panorama City. The two unrelated Watts shootings ended with the deaths of two suspects.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, called on Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck today "to review shooting procedures in residential confrontations."
"The shooting of the Watts grandmother again raises questions about the use, level, and type of lethal force needed when officers confront suspects in their homes," Hutchinson said in a statement.
"This once more requires a thorough review of LAPD policies and procedures on the most effective and safe way to handle suspects in confrontations at their places of residence."
In the Williams shooting, officers were sent to the location in response to a report that a woman had fired shots at her daughter and two grandchildren, police said. Williams was sitting on the porch of her home when officers arrived.
"The officers drove down the street toward the location of the suspect," police said. "The officers took a position across from the suspect and told her to drop her gun. The officers then saw the suspect point her weapon at a neighbor across the street. Three officers fired their weapons at the suspect, striking her multiple times in the upper torso."
Paramedics pronounced Williams dead at the scene. A loaded .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun was recovered at the scene, police said. Police could not confirm broadcast reports that Williams was deaf and could not hear the officers' commands.
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