Police: LA deputies shoot, kill Black man who dropped gun
LOS ANGELES – A Black man was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after he was stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bike, then ran from police, punched one officer and then “made a motion” toward a gun on the ground, authorities said.
The Monday afternoon shooting death of Dijon Kizzee in South Los Angeles prompted a peaceful protest hours later. Black Lives Matter marched Tuesday evening from the scene to a sheriff’s precinct station.
The killing came on the heels of the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that left Jacob Blake, who is also Black, paralyzed and spurred days of protests, reinvigorating the national debate on racial injustice and policing.
Also Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to ask the coroner to conduct an inquest into the fatal deputy shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado on June 18. Guardado was shot five times in the back after deputies said they saw him with a gun and he ran. Guardado’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and deputies involved in the shooting.
Kizzee’s family and friends created a small memorial for him at the shooting scene in the Westmont neighborhood – leaving flowers, balloons and candles just feet away from first responders’ discarded blue medical gloves and rolled bandages.
The Sheriff’s Department has not released Kizzee’s name, but two relatives confirmed his identity. In interviews with The Associated Press, they remembered the 29-year-old Kizzee as an energetic man with many friends and expressed anger at the shooting.
“You guys take care of dogs. You don’t take care of us,” said Kizzee’s aunt, Fletcher Fair, addressing the Sheriff’s Department. “He was a sweet and loving young man. He had his whole life ahead of him, and it was cut short by rogue sheriffs.”
Kizzee’s uncle, Anthony