Community Questions Pasadena Shooting
Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file an involuntary manslaughter charge Monday against a man accused of lying to 911 dispatcher moments after being robbed by two men, one of whom was shot to death by an officer in Pasadena.
"We have rejected it pending further investigation and we are doing legal research,'' District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
Pasadena Police Chief Philip Sanchez addressed community members at a public meeting Saturday in an attempt to answer growing concerns and questions regarding the fatal shooting of the 19-year-old college student.
He told attendees that his goal is to uncover the truth about the shooting and the circumstances which caused officers to open fire on Kendric McDade on March 24.
Community members submitted written questions to the chief which he answered at the public meeting held at New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church.
The chief was not allowed to comment on how many times McDade had been shot, according to the Los Angeles Times, since the investigation is ongoing.
However, he did say the police car's camera had no recording of the event since the officers did not activate their vehicle's lights and sirens which wold have automatically launched the camera.
A 911 caller was taken into custody earlier last week because police say he falsely reported an armed robbery, which led officers to believe that McDade was an armed and dangerous suspect. The deadly sequence of events stemmed from the 911 call, investigators said, since officers were told to respond to a call which said a laptop had been stolen by two armed men.
According to officials, the caller, Oscar Carrillo, repeatedly told officers that the two suspects he had reported were armed with handguns and were at Orange Grove Boulevard at Raymond Avenue.
When officers approached McDade, he fled until he was blocked from running by a police cruiser in an alley.
The officer rolled down his window and McDade allegedly motioned towards his waistband, prompting the officer in the cruiser to open fire. Another officer who had been pursuing McDade on foot also opened fire.
In his address to community members, Sanchez said that while firing from a vehicle was an option for police, it is unusual. However, he added that sometimes there is not always enough time for officers to yell "freeze."
Sanchez also said that beanbags and other non-lethal weapons were the usual option chosen for planned events but not for instantaneous, emergency decisions, according to the Los Angeles Times.
When he was asked by the community whether or not it had been necessary for his officers to shoot and kill McDade, he said, "I can't say. I can't say because I wasn't there."
One leader of the Pasadena Community Coalition, Martin A. Gordon, said that the facts of the shooting continue to remain unclear.
He told the Los Angeles Times that the meeting "brought up more questions than answers," and that "there's just no way I can fathom the police not telling him `Stop, halt, you're under arrest'" before they opened fire.
Police have told the public that Carrillo admitted that his repeated statements about the suspects being armed with handguns were false. He has since been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
As to McDade's involvement in the theft, police said he had acted as a lookout when Carrillo's backpack was taken from his vehicle.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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