Shooting of homeless man by Los Angeles police caught on video

A still from the video showing a police-involved shooting.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/KTLA)

Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a homeless man in the skid row area of downtown, and a video of the incident has been shared on Facebook.

Witnesses gave conflicting accounts about what happened: One told the Times the man was on the sidewalk and when he got up the officers "went straight to lethal force," while another said he would not come out of his tent and then fought after being tackled. One woman said the man moved to skid row a few months ago and told her he had been released from a mental facility after being there for a decade.

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Police Commission President Steve Soboroff saw the video for the first time on social media, and told the Times the LAPD's independent inspector general and the district attorney's office would be investigating the shooting "very, very carefully."

Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.