Video captures moment US officers shoot dead homeless man in broad daylight

The video, taken by a passer-by, was posted on Facebook yesterday and has already been over four million times

Rose Troup Buchanan
Monday 02 March 2015 10:35 GMT
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Officers scuffle with two individuals just prior to the shooting
Officers scuffle with two individuals just prior to the shooting

A shocking video has emerged of the moment five US police officers shot dead a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles.

The video shows a homeless man, identified by local residents as ‘Africa’, being forcibly restrained by three officers on a pavement in skid row, a downtown Los Angeles neighbourhood near the financial centre of the city, before he is shot five times at around noon on Sunday.

Horrified onlookers can be heard screaming and shouting as the situation quickly escalates.

LAPD commander Andrew Smith told the LA Times officers attached to the Central Division and Safer Cities Initiative responded to call around midday about a possible robbery.

Officers claimed that having made contact with Mr Africa he began “fighting and physically resisting the officers.”

They claimed that using a Taser on him was “ineffective,” and he continued to resist arrest causing one of the officers to fall to the ground.

“At some point in there, a struggle over one of the officer's weapons occurred,” Commander Smith told the LA Times, adding: “At that point an officer-involved shooting happened.”

No other weapons were recovered from the scene.

The video was recorded by Anthony Blackburn who uploaded it to Facebook yesterday. As of this morning, the footage has been viewed over four million times.

The start of the video shows a group of officers grappling with a man on the pavement. As they appear to attempt to restrain him, one of the officers drops his baton. It is picked up by a woman who is walking past.

She is then tackled to the ground by two officers, while three more continue to attempt to restrain Mr Africa.

The confrontation with the woman, who has not been identified but who a police spokesperson confirmed would be arrested on charges related to picking up the baton, partially obscures events behind her.

It is during this scuffle that one of the three officers appears to fire on the homeless man. Five shots can be heard on the recording.

Witnesses have given conflicting reports of events, with some claiming that Mr Africa was already face-down on the pavement when officers arrived and others stating that he was involved in a fight with another individual inside the tent when the LAPD arrived.

Homeless individuals are legally entitled to sleep on the streets from between 9pm and 6am but they are supposed to remove their tents in the daytime under a court agreement.

The scene will stir ugly memories for many. Thousands took to the streets across America over events in New York and Ferguson last year over the deaths of teenager Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police.

In both situations officers were cleared from any wrongdoing.

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