Two Los Angeles police officers went to the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood in response to reports of a man using a skateboard to break windows near Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.
LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith claims the officers saw a man that matched the description riding a skateboard, so they began to follow him in their car. When the man got off of his skateboard, the officers tried to detain him, but he did not listen to the officers’ commands.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a bystander, Patrick Comiskey, 54, saw the police officers struggling with a man. He thought it looked as though they were trying to get the man’s hands behind his back to arrest him. He observed one of the officers reaching for what Comiskey thought were handcuffs. Then he heard a gunshot.
“It was point-blank. All hell broke loose,” Comiskey told reporters.
Los Angeles police confirmed that the man involved in the shooting was critically wounded. The incident occurred on Thursday morning, and that afternoon investigators were still trying to solve the 30-something man’s identity.
LAPD officials said the officer shot the man during a “violent, physical altercation.” At some point, one of the officers used the Taser on the man, but it didn’t seem to have much affect and the struggle continued. Then the man grabbed the Taser and turned it on the officer, but the officer’s partner shot the man in the upper body. One of the officers has a leg wound that has been confirmed as a burn from a Taser.
In Comiskey’s description of the incident, however, he did not see anything that led him to believe a Taser was used.
Cmdr. Smith said that an initial police report stating that the man was arguing with officers was untrue. Several witnesses were interviewed, but Smith refused to reveal what they said.
Police. Sgt. Frank Preciado stated that investigators were trying to review footage from the area to further shed light on the incident. He also confirmed that the officers involved were not wearing body cameras.
After the Mid-Wilshire incident, several streets were blocked off as investigators examined the shooting scene. At least one window in the area was broken and a nearby tenant said that there was a lot of blood on the ground after the shooting.
This incident is the sixth shooting in LA County involving law enforcement in a week.
