The death of a black teenager, who was fatally shot Saturday afternoon by a police officer following a car chase, drew an angry – albeit peaceful – crowd on the streets of south Los Angeles.
Los Angeles police shot the 18-year-old following a traffic stop at about 1 p.m. Officers tried to pull over a car with paper license plates, suspecting the vehicle was stolen, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department.
The car stopped at 106th Street and Western Avenue, where two passengers got out of the car and ran in opposite directions. The officers chased one of the passengers, who ran to the back of a house on 107th Street, where he was later shot, police said.
The teen died immediately. Officers also found a handgun at the scene where he was killed.
Police have not named the teen, but his relatives identified him as Carnell Snell Jr.
Snell’s shooting drew dozens of protesters and local activists who blocked the intersection near the house where Snell was shot. Some waved “Black Lives Matter” signs, according to media reports. Some yelled at a line of officers wearing riot gear, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“A police officer should not be the judge, the jury and the executioner,” Tia Gonzalez, 36, told the Times.
In a tweet sent at 2:45 a.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said the protesters were “vocal, but peaceful.”
Snell’s mother, Monique Morgan, begged officers to let her past the crime scene tape to see her son’s body, according to the Times.
“Please, can I see my son?” she said. “I want to see my son.”
A distraught Morgan told reporters that she and her family received a phone call saying her son was shot five times in the back, the Associated Press reported, though police have not verified that account.
Relatives told reporters that Snell was killed on the same street where he lived.
Witnesses told CBS affiliate KCAL that Snell was running with his hands up and was telling officers to not shoot him.
Snell’s sister, Trenell Snell, 17, said she saw her older brother running from police. Moments later, she heard gunfire, according to the Times.
“At the end of the day, the cops came and shot my brother,” she said. “Killed my brother.”
Protesters also wrote chalked messages on the street near Snell was shot.
“Say his name,” the message reads.
Snell’s shooting comes on the heels of police shootings of black men in Charlotte, Tulsa, and El Cajon, California.
The fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, on Sept. 20 prompted violent riots in Charlotte and repeated calls for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney to release video footage of the shooting. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) also declared a state of emergency.
Putney later released the footage amid pressure from the public. The video, however, does not show whether or not Lamont was armed.
In Tulsa, Officer Betty Jo Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the Sept. 16 death of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed and was holding his hands in the air before he was shot in the chest. Shelby pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Friday.
More recently, in El Cajon near San Diego, authorities have released the videos showing the minutes leading to the Sept. 27 fatal shooting of Alfred Olango, 38, who was also unarmed. Police said Olango, described by his relatives as “mentally challenged,” pulled something from his pocket and took “a shooting stance” before he was shot multiple times.
According to The Washington Post’s database, police have shot and killed 719 people this year. In 2015, 991 people were shot by police officers. Of those shot this year, 43 were unarmed, while nearly 400 were armed with a gun.
On the south Los Angeles shooting on Saturday, a spokesperson for the police department told The Washington Post Sunday that no further details will be released because of the pending investigation.
Police have yet to say what led up to the shooting, if Snell was in possession of the gun that was found, or how many times he was shot. It’s also unclear at this time where the driver of the car or the other passenger is.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Kristine Guerra
