begin quote from:
The
death of a black teenager, who was fatally shot Saturday afternoon by a
police officer following a car chase, drew an angry — albeit peaceful —
crowd on the streets of south Los Angeles. Los Angeles police shot the
18 …
Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press
A
neighbor embraces an unidentified woman by a driveway of a home where
Los Angeles Police officers shot and killed Carnell Snell Jr. in Los
Angeles on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. Snell was killed in south Los Angeles
on Saturday at the end of a car chase, sparking a protest by several
dozen people angered by another fatal police shooting of a black man.
LAPD's fatal shooting of black teen is latest to spark angry protest
The death
of a black teenager, who was fatally shot Saturday afternoon by a police
officer following a car chase, drew an angry — albeit peaceful — crowd
on the streets of south Los Angeles.
Los
Angeles police shot the 18-year-old following a traffic stop at about 1
p.m. Officers tried to pull over a car with paper license plates,
suspecting the vehicle was stolen, according to a news release from the
Los Angeles Police Department.
The car
stopped at 106th Street and Western Avenue, where two passengers got out
of the car and ran in opposite directions. The officers chased one of
the passengers, who ran to the back of a house on 107th Street, where he
was later shot, police said.
The teen died immediately. Officers also found a handgun at the scene where he was killed.
Police have not named the teen, but his relatives identified him as Carnell Snell Jr.
Snell’s
shooting drew dozens of protesters and local activists who blocked the
intersection near the house where Snell was shot. Some waved “Black
Lives Matter” signs, according to media reports. Some yelled at a line
of officers wearing riot gear, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“A police officer should not be the judge, the jury and the executioner,” Tia Gonzalez, 36, told the Times.
In a tweet sent at 2:45 a.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said the protesters were “vocal, but peaceful.”
Snell’s
mother, Monique Morgan, begged officers to let her past the crime scene
tape to see her son’s body, according to the Times.
“Please, can I see my son?” she said. “I want to see my son.”
A
distraught Morgan told reporters that she and her family received a
phone call saying her son was shot five times in the back, the
Associated Press reported, though police have not verified that account.
Relatives told reporters that Snell was killed on the same street where he lived.
Witnesses told CBS affiliate KCAL that Snell was running with his hands up and was telling officers to not shoot him.
Snell’s
sister, Trenell Snell, 17, said she saw her older brother running from
police. Moments later, she heard gunfire, according to the Times.
“At the end of the day, the cops came and shot my brother,” she said. “Killed my brother.”
Protesters also wrote chalked messages on the street near Snell was shot.
“Say his name,” the message reads.
Snell’s shooting comes on the heels of police shootings of black men in Charlotte, Tulsa, and El Cajon, California.
The fatal
shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, on Sept. 20 prompted violent riots
in Charlotte and repeated calls for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief
Kerr Putney to release video footage of the shooting. North Carolina
Gov. Pat McCrory (R) also declared a state of emergency.
Putney
later released the footage amid pressure from the public. The video,
however, does not show whether or not Lamont was armed.
In Tulsa,
Officer Betty Jo Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter for
the Sept. 16 death of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed and was holding
his hands in the air before he was shot in the chest. Shelby pleaded not
guilty during an arraignment Friday.
More
recently, in El Cajon near San Diego, authorities have released the
videos showing the minutes leading to the Sept. 27 fatal shooting of
Alfred Olango, 38, who was also unarmed. Police said Olango, described
by his relatives as “mentally challenged,” pulled something from his
pocket and took “a shooting stance” before he was shot multiple times.
According
to The Washington Post’s database, police have shot and killed 719
people this year. In 2015, 991 people were shot by police officers. Of
those shot this year, 43 were unarmed, while nearly 400 were armed with a
gun.
On the
south Los Angeles shooting on Saturday, a spokesperson for the police
department told The Washington Post Sunday that no further details will
be released because of the pending investigation.
Police
have yet to say what led up to the shooting, if Snell was in possession
of the gun that was found, or how many times he was shot. It’s also
unclear at this time where the driver of the car or the other passenger
is.
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