últimas notícias

Two L.A. cops who shot black bicyclist Dijon Kizzee 20 times after pulling him over for an unspecified vehicle violation have been placed on desk duty. 

Kizzee, 29, was shot dead on Monday at 3.16pm. He was riding his bike when the two cops – who have not been named – spotted him riding his bike, made a U-turn then tried to pull him over, allegedly for an unspecified vehicle violation. 

The cops say he punched one of them then tried to run away and, while fleeing, dropped a handgun. They shot him 20 times and he was declared dead at the scene. 

Video footage taken before and after the shooting reveal some of what happened. Kizzee was filmed running with a bundle of clothing in his hands. He was then filmed lying on the ground after being shot multiple times. At that point, four cops approached him and handcuffed him while residents in surrounding houses screamed ‘how are you going to handcuff a dead man?’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’.  

After two days of protests, the LA County Sheriff’s Office still has not revealed why he was stopped by police, or what the officers’ names are. 

They have also not offered any explanation for why he was shot 20 times, or if he tried to reach for his own weapon. 

Two of the four cops filmed in the video have been taken off the streets but it’s unclear what – if anything – has happened to the other two.  

Kizzee was found shortly afterwards a few blocks away, where Dean says the officers attempted to make contact with him once again.

As they approached, Dean said the man, who was clutching items of clothing in his hands, punched one of the officers in the face and then dropped the items he was carrying.

‘The deputies noticed that inside the clothing items that he dropped was a black semi-automatic handgun,’ Dean said during a Monday conference.

The two officers then both opened fire on the man, striking him several times and rendering him motionless in the street. 

Dean was unable to confirm how many times the man was hit and where, as ‘we have not been able to move the body yet as we were waiting for the coroner’s office,’ he said early Monday evening. 

Kizzee was pronounced dead at the scene. No deputies were injured during the incident.

The two officers who shot Kizzee have been removed from the field as the investigation continues, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday.

Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney who represents Kizzee’s family and the families of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Jacob Blake, said Kizzee was shot more than 20 times. 

According to Mr Crump, his body was left on the street for several hours. 

‘They say he ran, dropped clothes and handgun,’ he tweeted. ‘He didn’t pick it up, but cops shot him in the back 20+ times then left him for hours.’ 

Deja, a woman who witnessed the shooting, told AFP that she yelled ‘don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him’ as the deputies tried to stop Kizzee. 

‘They were trying to grab and take his stuff away from him and then finally when it failed, he turned around to run and they tased him in the back of his leg,’ said Deja, who would only give her first name. 

‘He turned around and then they shot him.’

Deja said she didn’t see Kizzee holding a gun and added that deputies handcuffed him after the shooting. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kizzee’s aunt Fletcher Fair told reporters she believes her nephew’s race was a factor in the shooting.

‘They (police) don’t kill any other race but us and this don’t make any sense,’ she told a press conference.Why us? You have Asians … Hispanics even don’t get killed as much as we do. It’s just us and we’re tired,’ she said.

Soon after the deadly confrontation, more than 100 people gathered at the scene demanding answers.

A small crowd gathered again Tuesday evening at the site of the shooting and peacefully marched, along with a caravan of cars, to the sheriff’s station nearby as a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Some of the protesters carried a banner that read ‘Stop Killer Cops.’

It comes amid renewed demonstrations on the issue since the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

US President Donald Trump visited the city on Tuesday and blamed ‘domestic terror’ for the violence which he declared ‘anti-American’, making no reference to the underlying cause of the demonstrations or to Mr Blake.

Soon after arriving in the city, a visit made over the objections of state and local leaders, President Trump toured the burnt remains of a block besieged by violence and fire.

With the scent of smoke still in the air, he spoke to the owners of a century-old store that had been destroyed and continued to link the violence to the Democrats, blaming those in charge of Kenosha and Wisconsin while raising apocalyptic warnings if their party should capture the White House.