Los Angeles police shot two people within a 28-hour time period over Saturday and Sunday, triggering sustained protests similar to those in Charlotte, North Carolina, and El Cajon, a city near San Diego. The person killed in Los Angeles on Saturday, in the area of 108th Street and Western Avenue, was identified as 18-year-old Carnell Snell, Jr., known as “CJ.” Snell was Black.
Around 1 p.m. Saturday, officers tried to pull over a car with paper license plates, LAPD said. Officers suspected the vehicle, which had at least two people inside, was stolen.
But the car didn't stop, and officers gave chase, police said.
When the car finally did stop, two men ran away in different directions, the LAPD said. Two officers chased one of the suspects, following him to the back of a nearby home.
An officer fatally shot the man, less than two blocks away from where the foot pursuit started. Paramedics declared the man dead at the scene of the shooting. The officer's name has not been released.
The next day, a Latino man was killed in the area of 48th Street and Ascot Avenue.
The most recent incident came late Sunday afternoon, when officers responded to a report of a man armed with a gun near Ascot Elementary School, LAPD Sgt. James Townsend said.
Police made contact with the suspect, described only as a Hispanic male, and an officer-involved shooting occurred, Townsend said.
Protesters gathered at the scene of Carnell Snell’s shooting, blocking the intersection. They also descended upon the Los Angeles mayor’s residence in Hancock Park. At some point overnight the house and a vehicle were pelted with eggs. Members of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles have been calling on Mayor Garcetti to fire Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck for about a year or so. They charge that Beck presides over the country’s most murderous police force, and Garcetti has given tacit approval to this reign.
None of the officers involved in the weekend’s shootings have been identified as of yet.