Video of LA police shooting shows suspect with handgun
LOS ANGELES — Video released Tuesday shows a black man killed by Los Angeles police was armed just before he was shot dead. But the footage failed to capture him when officers say he twice turned toward them holding the loaded semi- automatic handgun.
The video shows the man identified by police as 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr. crouching behind an SUV parked at a strip mall and pulling a handgun from the waistband of his sweatpants.
Snell then tucks the gun back into his waistband and runs around the cor- ner as officers chase him. All then disappear from view because they were no longer within the range of the surveillance camera.
Snell’s shooting Saturday came amid heightened tensions over police actions involving blacks and other minorities across the country. Snell was the third black man in five days killed in confrontations with Southern California police.
Police said the video — posted to the Police Department’s YouTube channel after pressure by protesters to release it — supports the account LAPD Chief Charlie Beck gave defending the shooting.
Beck said the video showed Snell had an opportunity to get rid of the gun but decided to keep it when he ran.
The video showing the moments leading up to the shooting was made public just as Black Lives Matter organizers gathered Tuesday morning to protest Snell’s killing at a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission.
Demonstrators at the civilian oversight board’s meeting continuously disrupted Beck and commission members with expletives and insults.