One of the multiple tools police use to fight crime is a taser, but sometimes it’s just not enough. In rare cases, a suspect is shot and killed.
On Sunday, when the LAPD responded to a burglary in progress in Los Angeles’s notorious Skid Row, a struggle led to the death of a homeless man. Police had tried to taser him, it had no impact, and after he struggled for an officer’s gun he was shot dead. Tasers are one the few non-lethal options the LAPD has.
Tents and cardboard shelters cover the sidewalks of Skid Row, the downtown neighborhood where an estimated 1,700 homeless people live. Many of them struggle with mental illness and addiction.
According to the LAPD, the man (whose name wasn’t released as of Monday) fought with police when they tried to arrest him. They used a taser but dramatic video taken by one bystander shows the man as he fights back, then falls to the ground. Police say that he then “struggled over one of the officer’s handguns” and was shot multiple times. He died at the scene.
