Inglewood Police Department

A former Inglewood police officer was charged Wednesday with child abuse and brandishing a gun at another motorist during a freeway confrontation last year, prosecutors said. Officer Michael Lewis Robinson, 44, surrendered to the California Highway Patrol on Wednesday and was later released on $100,000 bail.

Adrianne Sears said she felt powerless and frustrated last summer when Inglewood residents angrily demanded to know why police in the span of four months had fatally shot four men -- three of whom were unarmed. As chairwoman of the Citizen Police Oversight Commission, residents expected that she and other commissioners would have answers. But they had none. "We should have been in the know, and, of course, we weren't," Sears said.

Inglewood police shot and killed a man who allegedly brandished a weapon early Sunday while officers were attempting to break up a birthday party, authorities said. The shooting was the latest deadly incident involving Inglewood's Police Department, which is under investigation by two outside agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, over its use of deadly force. Police said officers responded to reports of a fight shortly after 12:45 a.m. in the 800 block of South Osage Avenue.

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into the Inglewood Police Department's fatal shooting of 31-year-old Marcus Smith in May. The criminal probe, which was announced by the city in late June, is at least the third ongoing investigation into the department's use of deadly force. The FBI confirmed that it had opened the investigation, but would not discuss it. The civil rights division of the U.S.

After her son was shot and killed Sept. 20, Kathryn Harris was so consumed with grief she did not eat for days. "My arms and fingers are starting to take on a skeletal appearance," she said. "I can't eat and I can't sleep. And I cry." Kevin Harris, 21, had been sitting in his parked car in front of a music studio on the 3300 block of West 118th Place in Inglewood when he was fatally wounded, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about 40 minutes after the 8 p.m. shooting.

Inglewood residents and community activists this week criticized city officials' decision to withhold from the public a report by an independent consultant who was hired to look into several controversial shootings in which police officers fatally wounded unarmed suspects. "Everybody is waiting and waiting to see what this report says," said Adrianne Sears, chairwoman of Inglewood's Citizen Police Oversight Commission, which has not been given a copy of the report. Tony Muhammad, an activist who has also pressed the City Council for the report, said the lack of transparency has led to "discomfort and distrust" among residents.