A San Diego officer was reported to have fatally shot a man. The victim in question was claimed by witnesses to have been mentally challenged and unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Around 2.p.m. local time, gunshots were heard in a parking lot at the Broadway Village Shopping Center in El Cajon, California. The San Diego officer was the first responding officer to multiple calls about a man, the shot victim, who was “not acting like himself,” according to Police Chief Jeff Davis.
Upon arrival, the San Diego officer noted a black male in his 30s who was pacing back and forth, “not only endangering himself, but motorists,” Davis said.
The officer was alleged to have ordered the man to remove his hand from his front pants pocket. When the man didn’t comply, the San Diego officer drew his gun. A second officer arrived on scene shortly after and was prepared to stun the victim with a Taser.
While the officer was preparing the Taser, however, the man allegedly pulled an object from his pocket and took what appeared to be a threatening stance. Both officers responded by discharging their weapons, and the man was fatally shot as well as struck with the Taser.
He was rushed to a hospital and unfortunately pronounced dead on Tuesday evening. At present, he remains unidentified. Police would not comment on what the object that the man pulled from his pocket actually was, but did state no weapons were retrieved from the scene of the shooting.
Some witnesses claim that the victim had his hands above his head, but police spokesman Rob Ransweiler has disputed their accounts. Video footage taken from a cell phone appears to show the man in the alleged shooting stance.
Ransweiler stated he was “confident that the community will support the decision made by the officer.”
Despite this, several dozen protestors have already fathered at the scene and outside the police headquarters, cursing at officers and even pushing through police tape at some point as this video showed.
The family and protestors both grieve the shooting by the San Diego officer.
