7 Inglewood officers are placed on leave
Four days after an unarmed homeless man was killed by police, the chief places 7 officers on leave. City Council insists on better training.
Four days after officers fatally shot a homeless man who had a toy gun in his waistband, Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks broke her silence on the shooting Thursday, expressing concerns about the officers' tactics and saying she had placed seven of them on administrative leave.
"We could have done a better job tactically," Seabrooks said of Sunday's shooting in which officers fired as many as 47 rounds, killing the man and wounding a motorist as well as a dog. "I would have preferred that far fewer rounds would have been fired."
Seabrooks, who has been chief of the 190-officer department since last year, said the shooting was "very disturbing to the community, to the administration, the Police Department."
Her comments, in an interview with The Times, followed the release of a statement by the Inglewood City Council calling on Seabrooks to consider "a sweeping training program" for the entire department.
Sunday's shooting of Eddie Felix Franco, 56, was the department's fourth fatal officer-involved shooting in as many months.
Three of those slain by police were unarmed, causing concerns among residents and police activists that officers were using poor judgment when deciding to use deadly force.
Seabrooks has also drawn criticism for failing to provide the public with details about the shooting after it occurred. She defended herself, saying she did not want to release information before it had been verified.
In Franco's case, police said officers opened fire when Franco appeared to reach for a gun in his waistband. The object was actually a realistic-looking toy gun, Seabrooks said. The toy had an orange tip, but it was concealed from the officers' view, she added.
Seabrooks said Franco appeared to be intoxicated and failed to follow officers' orders to stand still and keep his hands up.
A source close to the investigation told The Times that officials were looking at the possibility that the shooting was a case of "contagious fire" -- a phenomenon in which an officer opens fire after he hears other officers firing and misinterprets the shots as being an attack.
The source, who requested anonymity because the investigation was continuing, said officials were also trying to determine whether the officers were appropriately positioned to avoid firing on civilians.
