Police Shootings

On the last afternoon of his life, Bernard Monroe was hosting a cookout for family and friends in front of his dilapidated home in this small northern Louisiana town. Throat cancer had left the 73-year-old retired electric utility worker unable to talk, but family members said he clearly was enjoying the commotion of a dozen of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren cavorting in the grassless yard.

Transit police Monday wrapped up their investigation into the controversial shooting death of an African American man by an officer and, just hours later, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District board created a panel to oversee police department activities. BART Police Chief Gary Gee said his department forwarded the investigation results Monday morning to the Alameda County district attorney's office, which will decide whether to charge transit Officer Johannes Mehserle in the death of Oscar J.

Long Beach police are grappling with a string of officer-involved shootings in recent months, including three this week alone. Five people were injured in officer-involved shootings during a seven-hour period from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday, authorities said. One of the victims was a police officer apparently struck by "friendly fire." So far this year, Long Beach police officers have shot nine people.

Graphic video of Oscar J. Grant III's death at an Oakland train station has roiled emotions in the Bay Area, leading to a demonstration at Bay Area Rapid Transit district headquarters and calls for more oversight of the agency's police force. The family of the 22-year-old father, who was shot to death by a BART police officer early on New Year's Day, filed a $25-million wrongful death claim against the agency Tuesday. John L.

Winston Hayes knows it was probably the "biggest mistake" of his life when he led Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies on a low-speed chase through a Compton neighborhood three years ago: He was driving under the influence, evading arrest and was shot at 120 times by deputies during a wild incident captured by a freelance cameraman and televised on newscasts nationwide. "Mr.

On New Year's Eve, La Habra police shot and killed Michael Cho in a strip mall parking lot when he allegedly threatened officers with a tire iron. The killing of the UCLA graduate and artist has set off criticism of police not heard in Southern California's Korean American community since the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when shop owners complained that officers never showed up to stop looters, and they picked up guns to defend their stores.

On the steps of the courthouse, a man handed out buttons emblazoned with a bullet wound and a number. Protesters waved placards carrying the same number and counted in unison until they reached the figure at the heart of this case: 50. That is how many bullets undercover police officers fired at Sean Bell, killing the unarmed 23-year-old after his bachelor party at a Queens nightclub in November 2006. Two of the officers involved in the shooting went on trial for manslaughter Monday.

A Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a man carrying an object later identified as a microphone stand after a traffic stop and chase Wednesday night in Van Nuys. Capt. Kris Pitcher of the Los Angeles Police Department's Force Investigation Division said Thursday that it was "far too early" to make any judgments about the incident that left Byron San Jose, 25, dead at the scene. Pitcher declined to say whether the officer thought the stand and its tripod were a weapon.

A teenager who witnessed his friend being fatally shot by a Los Angeles motorcycle officer offered a dramatically different account of the encounter than police Friday, saying the man was killed while trying to surrender and wasn't carrying anything in his hands. A police official overseeing the shooting investigation confirmed that the teenager gave investigators a similar account, but said detectives believe he is lying.

An off-duty deputy U.S. marshal shot and killed an armed employee at a Hollywood tattoo parlor after the man intervened in a dispute between the agent and his wife, police said Thursday. The shooting was reported shortly before midnight Wednesday in an alley behind the 7300 block of Melrose Avenue after a fight between Ryan Daniel Gonzalez, 26, of Ontario and the marshal, whose name was withheld pending the outcome of the investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.