Dramatic cellphone footage shows Nicholas Robertson, 28, at a busy intersection in Lynwood Saturday morning, when two deputies fired at him at least 30 times.
Advertisement
The man’s family identified him as Nicholas Robertson, a 28-year-old father of three.
“There may have been some domestic discord between him and a spouse that may have been a factor that agitated him to some degree but we have no confirmation on that”, said Katz.
The unidentified deputies opened hearth on the suspect after he didn’t adjust to orders to drop his gun.
The two deputies involved in the shooting fired 16 shots and 17 shots, respectively. “There were several citizens in the area”, Katz said.
At their Sunday afternoon press conference, Los Angeles officials say video shows the suspect had his gun on him during the entirety of the incident.
Seth Stoughton, a criminal law professor at the University of SC, said there are circumstances in which officers could shoot a man walking away from them, and the fact that Robertson was armed will play in their favor.
In the video, a sheriff’s deputy is seen following Robertson, who appears to be walking away next to an Arco gas station. Robertson at one point pointed the gun in the deputies’ direction and ignored their commands for him to drop the weapon, he said.
In this image made from security video footage provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff, a man, right, walks with a gun in his hand, December 12, 2015 in Lynwood, Calif.
One caller reported that the suspect fired about six or seven rounds into the air in a neighborhood, and bullets recovered in that area matched the.45-caliber handgun that was found with Robertson after he was shot, Katz said.
A crowd of about a dozen people protested against the police at the scene after the incident on Saturday, KTLA reported.
The deputies involved in the shooting have been reassigned from field duty, pending a multi-agency investigation, in accordance with protocol, sheriff’s officials said.
For her part, speaking to the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Robertson’s wife, Nekesha, said she was on her way to get Robertson when the shooting occurred, following a call from her mother-in-law telling her that Robertson was drunk.
As the deputies fire several times at Robertson, he drops to the ground.
The first 911 call came in at 10:53 a.m. and the shooting occurred at 10:59 a.m., said authorities.
“In this modern age of cellphone video and instant analysis on the Internet, I would ask that we keep in mind that a thorough and comprehensive investigation is detailed and time-intensive”, McDonnell said in a statement.
A 29-second clip obtained by KTLA-TV and filmed from a restaurant across the street seems to show the officers continuing to fire at the man as he crawls away. “It’s very troubling anytime you have someone shot and killed by police officers, especially those who are shot in the back and shot again and they crawled to their death”, Ali said before urging calm from community members.
Advertisement
“The shooting of Robertson comes on the heels of the Chicago Police shooting of Lacquan McDonald and is eerily similar”, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson said in a statement. “The video suggests they believe he had a gun”, Heal told the Times.
