Man shot by LAPD was holding auto part, not gun, police say, as neighbors demand answers
Days after Los Angeles police shot a 39-year-old man in Leimert Park, neighbors and others demanded answers about why officers opened fire in a residential neighborhood on someone who officials now say was unarmed.
Authorities have so far released few details about the shooting Monday evening of Jermaine Petit in the area of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and South Bronson Avenue.
At a news conference the night of the incident, an LAPD spokesman said the man was carrying a “weapon” when police came across him walking on King but offered no further clarification. The department later retracted that statement in a news release, saying a “black metal latch actuator” was recovered from the scene.
Petit, who was taken to a hospital in serious condition, is expected to survive, police said.
It was the LAPD’s 20th shooting of the year, a quarter of which have occurred this month.
Deshonay Howard said she was parked in front of her house across the street when she saw Petit walk past a bus stop near King and Degnan Boulevard, and noticed that he was being tailed by several police vehicles with their lights and sirens off.
“We all heard him say, ‘I don’t have anything,’ and he started to run,” she said, adding that she saw police shoot him three times when his back was turned.
A civilian panel rules the officers’ action was justified, even as its account throws the role of LAPD helicopters under new scrutiny.
In its news release Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Department said patrol officers from the Southwest Division and a uniformed supervisor believed they were dealing with someone armed with a handgun after responding to an “assault with a deadly weapon” call.
A man who matched the suspect’s description, later identified as Petit, did not respond to officers’ commands, police said.
“As the suspect walked away from the officers, he turned multiple times in their direction and pointed a black metallic object believed to be a firearm” before officers opened fire, according to the LAPD release.
After the shooting, Howard said, officers gathered behind a shield with guns still drawn and inched toward Petit, whom she didn’t know by name but recognized from having seen him around the neighborhood.
In the days since, she has tried to keep her mind off what happened but has worried about her daughters’ well-being.
Both little girls were playing outside their home on King; her older daughter was riding her scooter but stopped when she heard officers yelling at Petit, Howard said.
“The fact that police didn’t take the [time] to look back and see that there were kids playing,” Howard said, frustration creeping into her voice. “My neighbor was out trimming her hedges.”
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Taiyyeba Skomra was playing a word game with her husband and 8-year-old daughter when they heard three gunshots outside. Her daughter immediately hid under the couch, while Skomra and her husband peeked outside to see Petit lying on the ground, surrounded by officers.
“There was nothing in his hands and they were shouting at him to turn over,” she said. “There were many police amassing, and then finally somebody with a shield, they approached him.”
After a few minutes, officers turned Petit over and handcuffed him, she said. They removed a backpack that he was carrying, spilling its contents onto the street.
She said she spent the next few hours trying to remain calm for her young daughter, who was crying uncontrollably.
“She wouldn’t even come out from under the couch,” Skomra said. “I don’t know what comes from this other than terrorizing the neighborhood.”
Skomra said a cousin of Petit’s who lives nearby told her that Petit was a military vet who was fearful of officers after previous run-ins with law enforcement.
Speaking at the weekly Police Commission meeting Tuesday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said officers recovered an auto part known as a “latch actuator” but did not clarify why officers stopped Petit in the first place or how they mistook the part for a weapon.
The names of the officers involved are expected to be released in the coming days.
The incident will be reviewed by LAPD investigators and the findings presented to the Police Commission. Such investigations typically take several months and can last up to a year. Under department policy, video that investigators collect should be released within 45 days.
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