Activists call for federal inquiry into Inglewood police shootings
In the last four months, four men have been killed by city police officers. City and county officials already are investigating the department's policies and practices.
Community activists on Monday called for a federal inquiry into the "pattern and practices" of the Inglewood Police Department, as department officials refused to answer questions surrounding an officer-involved shooting that killed a 56-year-old homeless man.
The fatal shooting Sunday marked the fourth time in as many months that an Inglewood police officer has shot and killed a man. Police said that the homeless man killed said appeared to be carrying a handgun, which turned out to be a silver replica.
The shooting also left a bystander, a man sitting in a car, wounded. No information about that man's condition has been released by authorities.
At the police station this afternoon, Lt. Oscar Serrano declined to answer any questions about the shooting, including how many officers fired their weapons or the names of officers involved.
Serrano, informed that under California law, his department was required to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting, said they had no plans to address the media again until Tuesday.
The incident Sunday began when Inglewood police officers responded to reports of a man with a gun in the 400 block of South Market Street.
According to an account given late Sunday by Inglewood Police Lt. Gabriela Garcia, reporting officers got to the location shortly before 2 p.m. and found two men, one with what appeared to be a gun tucked into his waistband. Officers ordered the men to put their hands up; one complied, Garcia said, but the man who appeared to have a weapon did not.
Garcia said officers first used a nonlethal "beanbag" round but then fired their weapons when the man allegedly reached for his waistband. The gun turned out to be a silver replica handgun.
The man was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance, where he was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m. Sunday. Coroner's officials said today that they have identified the man, but are not releasing his name because they have not yet located his next-of-kin.
Police also shot and killed a dog that was with the two men.
A man who was struck by a stray bullet while sitting in his car has not been identified. He was taken to a hospital. Authorities have not commented on his condition.
Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks, who took over the department a year ago hoping to get past a series of scandals, was at the scene Sunday night but remained behind yellow police tape and did not speak to reporters.
