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Protest Over Deadly Police Shooting Forms Again in Westlake, LAPD Uses Non-Lethal Projectiles to Quell Crowd [Updated]
For a second consecutive night, protestors took to a street corner west of downtown where a man was shot and killed by police over the weekend. Four people were arrested Monday after rocks and bottles were thrown at LAPD officers clad in riot gear. Tonight, authorities declared an unlawful assembly after firing "at least two volleys of non-lethal projectiles" into the crowd at 6th and Union in Westlake, according to the LA Times.
[Update, 11:24 p.m: A citywide tactical alert has been declared, providing more police resources to the protest in Westlake where fires had been lit in the street, protestors were throwing objects from rooftops and a section had been cordoned off. Ina must-read follow-up post, the LA Times reported that the LAPD fired non-lethal rounds into a crowd that included families with children. One man fell off his bicycle and was visibly injured, but paramedics stayed on the other side of the police line. "Tough," said one officer, when asked why he was not receiving aid.
The protest began to calm around 11 p.m. and at least 15 people had been arrested, said the Times , while KFI News, via LA Observed, said there may have been 22 arrests (the Times later updated their number to 22).
USC's Neon Tommy has a couple of videos from the scene.]
On Sunday afternoon, three bicycle officers were flagged down by a pedestrian who said an apparently intoxicated man was threatening people with a knife. When ordered in English and Spanish to put the weapon down, Manuel Jamines instead threatened the officers who then shot and killed him, police said.
"There was very, very little opportunity to do much more than what was done," Chief Charlie Beck said a news conference today about the incident, which lasted about 40 seconds.
Some protestors have said Jamines, a day laborer from Guatemala, had no knife, but Beck today showed an image of the bloody knife in question.
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Police donned in riot gear tonight faced off with protestors. A live Fox 11 news report showed a large dumpster get pushed down a hill, a police skirmish line and a small fire lit in the street. A reporter was also hit by some sort of projectile, likely shot by someone with a pellet gun or sling shot. The LAPD eventually set up a "media safe zone" at the Rampart station.
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