{"id":24702,"date":"2015-12-15T09:02:02","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T17:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/fatal-police-shooting-in-la-suburb-was-different-from-others\/"},"modified":"2015-12-15T09:02:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T17:02:02","slug":"fatal-police-shooting-in-la-suburb-was-different-from-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/fatal-police-shooting-in-la-suburb-was-different-from-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal police shooting in LA suburb was different from others"},"content":{"rendered":"
LYNWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 When deputies confronted a man carrying a handgun in a Los Angeles suburb, the fatal shooting that unfolded was notably different from other recent flashpoints in the debate over police use of force: The suspect was armed and in an area crowded with people.<\/p>\n
Friends and relatives of Nicholas Robertson quickly questioned the police tactics that led to his death, particularly why officers fired at a person who was apparently moving away from them and why they kept firing even after he crumpled to the ground.<\/p>\n
But law-enforcement professionals said Monday that the shooting did not immediately appear to share much, if anything, in common with other police shootings that have resulted in criminal charges against officers.<\/p>\n
Robertson was killed by officers Saturday after witnesses reported seeing a man firing a handgun into the air six or seven times and briefly going inside a car wash and a pizza parlor.<\/p>\n
Video of the shooting, released by the sheriff\u2019s department the next day, showed deputies firing at Robertson more than 30 times. In a close-up image, he can be seen stretched out on the pavement holding a gun.<\/p>\n
Deputies first spotted him in front of a gas station in the south Los Angeles County suburb of Lynwood, where two women and three children were inside a car. They ordered him to drop the weapon, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Robertson refused and at one point pointed the gun in the deputies\u2019 direction, according to police.<\/p>\n
Jim Bueermann, president of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Police Foundation, which is dedicated to better policing, said the shooting is \u201cas different as night and day\u201d when compared with other recent killings, such as the slaying of Walter Scott, an unarmed South Carolina man who was shot in the back last spring as he ran away from an officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis guy has a gun. He\u2019s been firing it. He refuses deputies\u2019 orders to drop the gun. I think people might see some similarities, but there are distinct factual differences that people have to consider in terms of public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bueermann, who was also a longtime police chief of the Redlands Police Department, near San Bernardino, said the fact that Robertson was in a busy commercial area also heightened the risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot let someone armed and firing a weapon\u201d approach a mother with kids shopping or some guy walking along and minding his own business, he said.<\/p>\n
The police, he added, \u201chave an obligation to people in that area to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ken Cooper, a New York-based use-of-force expert who trains police and has testified for and against officers, called the shooting \u201cabsolutely justifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when Robertson is crawling away, \u201che\u2019s still an active threat. You can be shot to where you\u2019re about to die and still be a deadly threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The police \u201cwant to stop that man from doing what he\u2019s doing and he\u2019s not stopping. He\u2019s very intent. What was in his head I guess we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never a time when the weapon was not in his possession,\u201d homicide Capt. Steven Katz said Sunday.<\/p>\n
The suspect\u2019s gun was not loaded, but detectives found two live rounds \u201cin his grasp,\u201d Katz said. The gun was not registered to Robertson and has not been reported stolen.<\/p>\n
Robertson\u2019s wife told the Los Angeles Times that her mother-in-law called her shortly before the shooting to say Robertson was under the influence of alcohol. Authorities were looking into whether he had been involved in a domestic dispute.<\/p>\n
Robertson\u2019s mother and aunt said he had no history of mental illness, and that they don\u2019t know how he would have obtained a gun.<\/p>\n
His aunt there was no need to shoot him that many times if he was on the ground, crawling away.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old had convictions for driving under the influence, misdemeanor assault and trespassing. Last week, he was sentenced to 22 days in jail and three years\u2019 probation for driving with a suspended or revoked license.<\/p>\n
He was booked into jail Wednesday and released less than two hours later \u2014 standard procedure in cases involving minor charges.<\/p>\n
Robertson, a stay-at-home father of three, was black. Both deputies are Hispanic, a sheriff\u2019s spokesman said.<\/p>\n
One officer had been working in the field for about a year, the other for about 18 months.<\/p>\n
Bueermann said the experience of deputies is rarely a factor. He said he\u2019s seen longtime officers make bad choices and rookies show good judgment.<\/p>\n
The president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, a civil rights group, called for a Justice Department investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t even treat a dog like that. You have a human being who\u2019s on the ground crawling away, not even firing at you. And yet you still empty your weapon, and he\u2019s African-American,\u201d Earl Ofari Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n
Robertson\u2019s aunt said the family believes the shooting was entirely about race, and she wants the officers involved removed from the force.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a good father and son. He took care of his children,\u201d said Cassandra Howard, who also lives next door to where Robertson lived. \u201cThis shouldn\u2019t have happened to him. Just like it shouldn\u2019t happen to all the others that we see across the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writers Brian Melley, Anthony McCartney and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LYNWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 When deputies confronted a man carrying a handgun in a Los Angeles suburb, the fatal shooting that unfolded was notably different from other recent flashpoints in the debate over police use of force: The suspect was armed and in an area crowded with people. Friends and relatives of Nicholas Robertson quickly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24702"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}