LAPD Officers Acted Lawfully In Fatal Shooting Of Homeless Man On Skid Row, DA's Office Says

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles County prosecutors have declined to file charges against an LAPD sergeant and two officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of a homeless man on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles last year.

According to a worksheet prepared by the District Attorney's Office, the three officers involved acted lawfully in the March 1, 2015, shooting of Charly Keunang, who was an immigrant from Cameroon known as "Africa."

According to the report, which was dated Nov. 9 and first obtained by the Los Angeles Times, police initially approached Keunang in response to a report that he had wielded a baseball bat while attempting to rob another person on Skid Row.

When approached, Keunang refused to produce identification and disobeyed orders from officers, instead diving inside his tent, according to the report.

Officers stripped the tent away and deployed a Taser, with no apparent effect, leading to a struggle, during which Keunang "tried to grab (an officer's) firearm from its holster while falling to the sidewalk," according to the report.

As the struggle continued, the officer "felt his firearm being pulled from the holster by Keunang and shouted out `He's got my gun!' In response, Martinez fired his weapon once, then Torres and Syed each fired his weapon twice," the report states.

Prosecutors concluded that "the abundance of physical and video evidence in this incident in fact establishes that the officers' reasonable assessments of the threat posed by Keunang were as grave and imminent as the officers perceived them to be. ... Keunang posed a high likelihood of killing officers and civilians at the very instant that he was shot. We conclude that Sergeant Syed and Officers Martinez and Torres were justified in using deadly force against Leundeu Keunang."

Tensions between police and residents in the area ran high in the wake of the shooting and a lawsuit was filed by Keunang's family disputing the LAPD's account that Keunang had reached for an officer's gun.

Earlier this year, the LA Police Commission ruled that the officers were justified in shooting Keunang six times, including twice in the chest. One officer was determined to have violated tactical policies.

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