EL CAJON, Calif.—The family of an unarmed black man fatally shot by police is like thousands who have transformed the suburban San Diego city of El Cajon: Refugees from a strife-torn country.
The family of 38-year-old Alfred Olango fled Uganda to a refugee camp and then came to the United States in 1991. On Tuesday, Olango, a father of two girls, was killed by an officer who responded to calls from Olango’s sister saying her brother was acting erratically and wandering into traffic.
He was shot multiple times after police say he pulled something from his pocket that they thought could be a weapon and pointed it at the officer. The object turned out to be a 4-inch electronic cigarette device.
The killing and subsequent angry protests have brought attention to El Cajon, a diverse, largely blue-collar city of 104,000 people that over the past two decades has absorbed a surge of refugees, many from Iraq and more recently from Syria.
Some signs on Main Street—a vibrant mix of furniture stores, clothing shops and restaurants—are in Arabic. Spanish is the primary language for nearly one of every four students in the Cajon Valley Union School District, while Arabic and Chaldean—spoken by Iraqi Christians—is the main language for more than one in 10.
Rob Goss, part-owner of a boxing gym on Main Street and a city resident for more than 10 years, credits Chaldeans for opening markets, gas stations and other businesses that have fueled economic growth.
“We’re still in a curve of trying to get people on their own feet but it’s happening,” said Goss, 47. “They’re adapting.”
The influx has bred some tension. Mayor Mark Lewis was forced to resign in 2013 for derogatory remarks about Chaldeans.
“First time they come over here, it doesn’t take them too long to learn where all the freebies are at,” he said and then later apologized.
