Posted on 05/30/2018 10:27:08 AM PDT by BBell
An attorney for the family of a 14-year-old boy killed by a Los Angeles police officer released body camera footage Tuesday of the controversial 2016 encounter, arguing that the recordings show that the boy had tossed his gun and was unarmed when he was shot.
Humberto Guizar released two clips recorded by the body cameras of two officers who responded to a vandalism report behind a North Chicago Street apartment complex, where the teen, Jesse Romero, was with a group of boys tagging graffiti.
Two-and-a-half minutes into the footage, the officers spot at least two boys outside the complex. One starts running, and the two officers give chase down Cesar Chavez Avenue. At least one shouts multiple times for the boy to stop.
Less than a minute later, as the officers approach a street corner, a gunshot is heard. Officer Eden Medina, who is in front, pauses at a pay phone and appears to peek around the corner.
"Shots fired," one said.
"Shots are fired, shots fired, officer needs help," the other said.
Medina turns onto Breed Street with his gun drawn, and gunfire echoes.
"Get down!" a voice shouts.
"Let me see your [expletive] hands!"
As the officers approach, Jesse is lying on the sidewalk, wounded. A revolver is seen on the other side of a wrought-iron fence.
The recordings do not show Jesse getting shot. But his family's attorney argued that if Jesse was holding a gun when Medina peered around the corner, the officer would not have walked into the line of fire.
Because the gun was found several feet away, Jesse tossed it before he was shot. There's "no way" he could have thrown a gun over a fence while wounded, Guizar said.
He said Jesse was struck twice: in his stomach and chest.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The city will probably settle, they usually do. Pay day for the lawyer.
Why not?
Baby thug playing stupid games: “tagging” graffiti - vandalism, while carrying a gun. Baby thug won the appropriate prize for that game. I’m okay with the outcome (and, no, I didn’t notice and don’t care whether this baby thug was Hispanic, black, Asian, white, or whatever).
’ give chase down Cesar Chavez Avenue.’
Lived in Boyle Heights for three years. The public and the cops were equally savage. No one was safe. Ever.
Fourteen year old boy.
Armed.
Committing vandalism.
Running from the police.
Had to have had his hands on the gun in order to throw it.
IMHO this is a 100% justifiable shooting and I’m normally critical of the police when they overreact.
In this case they did their job.
Well done, officers. Thank you!
“Jesse tossed it before he was shot”
possible sequence:
1)perp fires shot behind him towards corner and turns forward, facing away from corner
2)cop rounds corner
3)perp turns around to face corner again w/gun still in hand
4)cop fires.
Only problem I see is cop says “get down” after he fires.
Nevertheless, can’t say good/bad shoot w/out seeing actual orientation of perp when shots fired. W/o know anymore I’d take the cop’s word on this one because of the shot first fired.
He didn’t have to throw it over the fence, it was a wrought iron fence and a handgun can easily go through it. He could have easily tossed it after being shot.
He had a gun and was running from the police
Benefit of the doubt goes to the police.
If it’s shown that the gun was fired, then I’m OK with the kid getting shot. Whether he tossed the gun just before getting shot is irrelevant — the cop would have had to hesitate a second to look at the teen’s hands, and register whether they happened to be empty, which is long enough for the cop to get hit.
Modern weapons do not fire accidentally when dropped. Case closed.
Revolver of undetermined age and shape, it’s possible but who cares. He should not have been carrying while committing a crime. He should have dropped the weapon immediately. He should have stopped and put his hands way way up.....
Guizar is just pandering to the low IQ ghetto dwellers and silly suburbanites.
They always make it Job One to get that body camera footage out to clear the air, huh.
Some real Columbo-style cogitation going on there.
Just one more thing......
Yes, the city will settle and the tax payers will be on the hook for another stupid thuggette. 1) don’t play stupid games. 2) kids shouldn’t have illegal guns. 3) don’t run from a cop. 4) obey cops’ orders. This was 100% the kid’s fault.
Sure there was a way. People can keep doing things even when shot. The coke/crackheads who keep going with mortal wounds for 30 seconds to a minute and keep attacking officers before they run out of blood, are proof.
It doesn’t even take drugs in the system. The FBI has records of more than one instance where a bad guy shot in the heart during a shootout kept shooting back for almost a minute until they bled out. In the famous Florida FBI shootout the main bad guy received a fatal bullet wound early in the fight but kept fighting and killed three agents with a mini-14 before he died as a result of a wounded FBI agent shooting him in the head with a shotgun.
I don’t understand that line either.
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