Pasadena Police Fatally Shoot Man After A Traffic Stop

A Pasadena police officer fatally shot a man after a Saturday night traffic stop, sparking a confrontation between police and a crowd that gathered after the incident.

The slain man was a passenger in the car that police stopped on Raymond Avenue and Grandview Street shortly before 8 p.m. for what police said was a "violation of a vehicle code."

According to a statement from the Pasadena Police Department, the passenger “became uncooperative, preventing a search of his person.”

The passenger then fled into the street and — according to the police — removed a firearm from his waistband, prompting an officer to shoot at the man twice, striking him at least once in the upper torso, Police say the man threw his firearm into the street as he ran and when he stopped, the officers realized he was injured and called for medical assistance.

The man died later at the hospital.

Department spokesman Lt. William Grisafe said an investigation into the shooting is underway and that the police chief has made a commitment to get video from the body-worn camera available "sooner than later." Grisafe estimated that it "could be within days or it could take a couple weeks."

Grisafe said the officer is not currently on duty.

"We're still in the preliminary investigation stages so that determination will be made, as to what the plan of attack is in regards to the officer," Grisafe said.

Police say they will identify the slain man, pending notification of next of kin.

But friends and family who gathered at the site of the shooting Sunday morning said the victim was Anthony McClain.

More than a dozen people gathered around a memorial set up by where they said he was killed across from La Pintoresca Park, about a tenth of a mile away from the traffic stop. People hugged and cried as a dozen red candles flickered around empty bottles of liquor.

By 2p.m., about three dozen people had gathered at La Pintoresca Park to remember McClain. One of them was a man named Dion who said that Anthony McClain was his older brother, a 32-year-old R&B-loving father of two.

Dion said he could barely muster the words to describe what he was feeling.

"I can't even really talk. They killed my brother though," Dion said. "I hate police - straight up. They're not here to protect and serve, none of that. They're here to kill us."

Lt. William Grisafe said a crowd of 50 to 100 people had gathered about two or three hours after Saturday's shooting.

He said they used a Taser on and arrested a man who threatened violence on police.

Police also responded to the crowd with pepper spray. Grisafe said a minor was not sprayed directly but hit by "residual spray" and was treated on the scene by parademics and left with no "permanent or serious injury."

The episode led the boy’s mother to use pepper spray on an officer. Grisafe said it was not clear how she obtained the pepper spray or if it was her own. She was not arrested.

10:40 am Monday: This story has been updated to update information about the man who says he was Anthony McClain's brother.