Ugandan refugee latest police casualty
An unarmed black man fatally shot by police in a suburb of San Diego overcame a childhood of hunger in war-torn parts of Africa and came to America with the dream of opening a restaurant with his family, his brother says.
That dream ended when Alfred Olango, 38, was killed on Wednesday in El Cajon, California.
Two officers responding to a report of a mentally ill man shot Olango after they said he pulled an unidentified object from his pants pocket and appeared to move into a ‘‘shooting stance’’. Police later said the item was an electronic cigarette, or vaping, device.
Olango was having an emotional breakdown over his friend’s death when police confronted him, said lawyer Dan Gilleon, who is representing the Ugandan refugee’s family.
His sister had called 911 to say Olango was not acting like himself and was walking in traffic.
Olango’s brother, Joeffrey, described his brother as a father of two daughters with a ‘‘lion’s heart’’. The Rev Shane Harris, who spent time with the family follow- ing the fatal shooting, said the brothers were twins.
Alfred Olango sometimes risked his life in Africa to steal bread to feed his younger sister before his family moved to the United States in 1991, his brother said. He also said his brother sometimes saw bodies.
‘‘He had a lion’s heart. He loved too much,’’ Joeffrey Olango said.
‘‘That came from the way he grew up. Seeing all the things we saw as kids, knowing how brutal life can be and wanting to actually sustain the best possible quality of life.’’
Family members have demanded a federal investigation into the shooting.
Federal court records show that Olango fled to the US because Uganda’s president at the time had threatened to kill his family. His father had worked for a previous president.
Olango had been granted permanent residency but lost that status in 2001 after a conviction for selling cocaine. As of 2006, a deportation order against him was still pending.
After being pulled over by police in Colorado in December 2005, Olango pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon by a felon and was sentenced to more than three years in prison. After moving to California with his family, he obtained a high school equivalency degree while incarcerated for a criminal offence.
His Facebook profile listed jobs as head chef at a Hooters restaurant and a Western-themed steakhouse in Arizona.
Olango was developing plans to open a restaurant with his family that would share ‘‘the wonderful tastes of Africa with Americans’’, his brother said.
‘‘We suffered too much with the war in Africa, and we come here just to suffer again?’’ said Agnes Hassan, from Sudan, who said she spent time with Olango in a refugee camp.