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A police shooting in South L.A. left one man dead Tuesday afternoon, reports the L.A. Times.
The incident happened at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Century Boulevard just east of Figueroa Street. The LAPD officer, who was on a motorcycle, stopped a dark-colored sedan. A male passenger got out of the car and was later shot at the scene. According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, the deceased was an 18-year-old man named Kenny Watkins.
The driver of the car sped away after the shooting and remains at large. Police say they have recovered two handguns at the scene. It is uncertain how many people were in the car. A detailed description of the sedan is not currently available.
The officer involved, who was not wearing a body camera, was not injured. The LAPD's media relations department told LAist that an investigation is ongoing and that no new information has been released since Tuesday.
This is the 16th police shooting that has happened in 2016. Of those incidents, 13 of them were fatal.
As noted by the Times, the incident happened just hours after an emotional LAPD commission meeting. At the meeting, residents demanded that the LAPD release more information about a number of recent officer shootings.
On August 9, 14-year-old Jesse Romero was shot and killed by police as he was fleeing authorities. The LAPD said that he fired a shot at officers, but witnesses claimed that he didn't fire his gun, and that he'd tossed it over a fence to discard it. Another witness said that the gun went off after it'd hit the ground. At the meeting, Antonio Rodriguez, an attorney representing Romero's mother, said that the LAPD should release "every bit of evidence so the community can independently judge what is right and what is not right." Residents at the meeting also demanded the release of information pertaining to the July 25 shooting that left 18-year-old Richard Risher Jr. dead. The incident happened at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in South L.A.
