A A black man was killed Monday in Los Angeles by police, who say he had a gun, but had thrown it away, amid a general climate of tension and distrust of law enforcement, following several cases of police violence against African-Americans.
Of « about thirty years », The man was riding a bicycle Monday afternoon when police officers tried to stop him for a traffic violation, Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office told a news conference.
According to the authorities, the man « ran away » leaving his bicycle behind, and when the police managed to catch him he hit one of them in the face. In the meantime, he dropped several pieces of clothing that he was carrying in his hand.
« The agents noticed that inside the pile of clothes there was a black semiautomatic pistol »Dean added.
At that moment the agents fired. The man, hit by several bullets, died at the scene.
Authorities did not clarify whether the man was looking for his weapon when he was shot. Dean indicated that an investigation was opened.
According to local media, a hundred people gathered at the scene Monday night to demand justice.
The United States is the scene of a wave of anti-racist protests following the death in May of George Floyd, a black man suffocated by a white policeman in Minneapolis. The Demonstrations regained strength last week after a white cop fired seven point-blank shots at a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
President Donald Trump, who is visiting that small town on Tuesday, is not scheduled to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed by this new apparent case of police abuse.
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