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LAPD Chief: Shooting Of Unarmed Venice Man Doesn't Look Justified
LAPD Chief Beck is speaking out after viewing surveillance footage of an unarmed man being shot in Venice. He said that he is "very concerned" about the shooting.Brendon Glenn, 29, has been identified by acquaintances as the man fatally shot by police officers last night near the iconic Venice sign last night, according to KTLA. Beck says that though the investigation into the shooting is just starting, he's worried about what he saw in surveillance video.
"Any time an unarmed person is shot by a Los Angeles police officer, it takes extraordinary circumstances to justify that, and I have not seen those extraordinary circumstances at this point," Beck said, according to KTLA.
The officer who opened fire on the suspect still hasn't been interviewed yet. Beck says they don't want to interview him while he is on medication for the knee injury he got during the altercation.
"We have not been able to interview the officer at this point," Beck said. "I don't know what was in the officer's mind. We expect to know more tomorrow. At this point, it appears that it was a physical altercation."
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The shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday evening on Windward Avenue just west of Pacific Avenue. Police say that two officers responded to a call of a person harassing people on Windward. Police spoke to the man, Glenn, briefly. But then they said they saw him tussling with a bouncer at the Townhouse bar, and intervened. Police got into a physical fight with the man before fatally shooting him.
Friends of Glenn's say that he had recently moved to the area from New York City, but he had already made an impression. A local resident Henry Geller told KTLA, "Whatever reason that they had to shoot him, I don’t think it was justified because he wasn’t a confrontational human being by any means. He was definitely like a peacemaker."
Earlier that evening, Glenn had just attended a support group at The Teen Project, which offers support for homeless youth. Timothy Pardue, who runs the center, told KTLA that he had been struggling: "He was crying and he was even saying he wanted his mom, and he just said his mom didn’t want him back home. He struggled with a lot of things."
Beck said that he wants the discussion around the shooting to focus on issues like mental illness, homelessness and alcohol more than race. He noted that the officer who shot Glenn was black.
"I know there are public concerns about this particular officer-involved shooting, as there are any time an unarmed individual is shot by a police officer. I am also very concerned about this shooting," Beck said. "We will expend all resources to find out the truth of what happened last night on Windward Avenue."
Beck says the LAPD will be holding a town hall meeting Thursday night with Inspector General Alexander Bustamante to discuss the shooting with the community.
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