Donnell Thompson, 27, was shot at close range by a deputy riding in the turret of an armored vehicle, one of two dispatched as officers searched for suspects in Compton after a auto chase and shootout.
Advertisement
The precursor to a lawsuit filed Tuesday says the department did not have probable cause when deputies violently confronted 27-year-old Donnell Thompson Jr. on July 28 in Compton.
A black man fatally shot by a deputy in an armored vehicle last month wasn’t involved with a carjacker who had fired at police, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department acknowledged Tuesday, just before the man’s family said authorities had killed an innocent man.
Two of those rounds struck Thompson, who then stood up, looked around, and ran toward an armored sheriff’s vehicle.
Matrice Stanley, sister of Donnell Thompson, 27, who was fatally shot by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Compton, Calif., speak to Los Angeles County supervisors at the County Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. The man, 51-year-old William Bowers, was shot after fleeing from deputies on a bicycle in Castaic in northern Los Angeles County.
Different scenarios, same result and, experts say, likely the same outcome once the investigations are completed police were legally justified to open fire because they had reason to believe the suspects could harm them or others. “It matters if a reasonable cop has a reason to believe he is”.
Sheriff’s homicide Capt. Steven Katz said deputies tried non-lethal force against Thompson, who was as lying with his left hand under his head near what police feared could be a gun. No criminal record. And no idea what was going on when deputies found him laying in a yard at 5 a.m. and began attacking him flash grenades and rubber bullets, thinking he was the same suspect who had eluded them two-and-a-half hours earlier during a traffic stop of a stolen vehicle. Deputies searching for him found Thompson about two hours later after a homeowner about a half-mile away reported a man lying in his front yard. Originally, the department identified Thompson as one of the suspects. He didn’t move or respond when deputies repeatedly shouted at him and then used a flash-bang device.
After deputies shot Thompson with two rubber bullets, Katz said he pushed up off the ground and charged toward the armored vehicle.
“We have determined that there is no evidence that that Mr. Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle, nor that he was involved in the assault on the deputies”, the department said in statement. The deputy who fired at Thompson has been reassigned to duties not in the field.
The board remained quiet as Thompson’s family members spoke.
Thompson family attorney Brian Dunn said he was filing a claim alleging civil rights abuse by the Sheriff’s department and that it would be processed by Wednesday morning.
Advertisement
Katz refused to call the shooting a mistake but admitted:’Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadn’t happened?’ he said. “My little brother was innocent”, Brown said. “That’s the key here”.
