Venice Residents Demand Answers From Police, City Officials About LAPD's Fatal Shooting Of Homeless Man
VENICE (CBSLA.com) — Tempers flared at a town-hall meeting Thursday evening in Venice with residents, police and city leaders.
Residents demanded answers in the fatal shooting Tuesday of homeless man Brendon Glenn, 29.
Police acknowledged Glenn was unarmed.
KCAL9's Erica Nochlin attended the meeting and said residents along with some of Glenn's friends expressed sadness and frustration with police and city officials.
They loudly booed a councilman and at times chanted "Murder!"
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People also spoke out on Glenn's behalf.
"That man that got shot was a good man; he was a good man, and he didn't deserve that. And it was murder," said one man.
The assembled crowd called for police to release security video of the incident.
LA's inspector general and deputy chief of the LAPD's West Bureau both responded.
The inspector general explained that an investigation is in its early stages.
The deputy chief said police don't want to show the video in fear of tainting witness testimony.
Rather than assuage the crowd, more concerns came in. The crowd wanted to know if the officer had been interviewed.
It was explained the officer had probably not been interviewed, likely due to physical impairment. They would not confirm the name of the officer and would not say that an officer shown in a photographed obtained by CBS2/KCAL9 in crutches was the officer that fired the fatal shot. But only that he was involved in the incident.
Some residents also questioned why LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and DA Jackie Lacey were no-shows.
"One of the reasons you're seeing so much anger," said one man, "is because we're seeing a lot of reflection."
Others said they were encouraged by Beck's statement Wednesday that, so far, he had not seen the extraordinary circumstances in the incident that might have warranted using deadly force against an unarmed man.
As the criticism continued for hours, Police Commission President Steve Soboroff stopped a long line of speakers to defend the majority of officers.
He said, "And what 97 percent of these officers do, that never use their guns, shows that kind of restraint."
Nochlin said a few people expressed gratitude that they got go speak their minds. She said the crowd was still largely angry and feeling they heard more rhetoric than solutions.
Friends of Glenn's went to a makeshift memorial, wrote messages on balloons and then released them skyward.
