Hundreds March In Response To Deadly Officer-Involved Shooting On Skid Row
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Hundreds of people marched Tuesday in a response to the recent deadly officer-involved shooting of a homeless man on Skid Row.
A rally was held at 8 a.m. at 6th and San Pedro streets before community members marched to the LAPD headquarters to speak out at the 9:30 a.m. Police Commission meeting.
For more than two hours LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and members of the commission listened to speakers blast how the was the situation was handled.
"We expect better," one man said.
"Black lives matter," another woman added. "One of you should have the guts to say it."
LAPD officer Jerretta Sandoz meanwhile called for activists to have an open mind and wait for the investigation to be completed, prompting jeers from the crowd.
The victim, who was known by friends as "Africa", was shot around noon on Sunday near the Union Rescue Mission, 545 S. San Pedro St., officials said.
Sources later identified the man to CBS2/KCAL9 as 39-year-old Charley Saturmin Robinet.
A French official told the Associated Press Tuesday Robinet had stolen the identity of a French citizen and was living under an assumed name, however.
Axel Cruau, the consul general for France in Los Angeles, says officials realized this after he was convicted of bank robbery in 2000.
According to the FBI, Robinet led officers on a pursuit in Ventura before he was taken into custody.
Officers were responding to a robbery call when they got into a scuffle with the man Sunday. According to police, during that fight he attempted to grab an officer's gun, which prompted three officers to fire at him.
A cellphone video of the incident was posted on Facebook and quickly went viral. Since that time, several other videos, including one from a nearby surveillance camera, have surfaced.
Forensic experts will use those videos, as well as the ones taken from two of the officer's body cameras, during the investigation.
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