Protesters take to the streets after police kill another black man in LA

AFP

A black man was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after he was stopped for a traffic violation while riding a bike, then ran from police, punched one officer and then “made a motion” toward a gun on the ground, authorities said.

The Monday afternoon shooting death of Dijon Kizzee in South Los Angeles prompted a peaceful protest hours later. Black Lives Matter supporters marched on Tuesday evening from the scene to a sheriff’s precinct station.

The killing came on the heels of the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that paralyzed Jacob Blake, also black, and spurred days of protests, reinvigorating the national debate on racial injustice and policing.

Also on Tuesday, The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to ask the coroner to conduct an inquest into the fatal deputy shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado on June 18.

Guardado was shot five times in the back after deputies said they saw him with a gun and he ran.

His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and deputies involved in the shooting.

Kizzee’s family and friends created a small memorial for him at the shooting scene in the Westmont neighborhood — leaving flowers, balloons and candles.

The Sheriff’s Department has not released Kizzee’s name, but two relatives confirmed his identity.

In interviews with The Associated Press, they remembered the 29-year-old Kizzee as an energetic man with many friends and expressed anger at the shooting. “You guys take care of dogs. You don’t take care of us,” said Kizzee’s aunt, Fletcher Fair, addressing the Sheriff’s Department.

“He was a sweet and loving young man. He had his whole life ahead of him, and it was cut short by rogue sheriffs.”

Kizzee’s uncle, Anthony Johnson, 33, said they grew up together and were as close as brothers. Johnson said he often warned his nephew that, as a Black man, he had to be especially careful.

“‘You have a target on your back, just by being you,’” Johnson remembered telling Kizzee as recently as a few weeks ago. “He was like, ‘Yeah, all right, uncle,’ like he always says.”

A Sheriff’s Department statement on Tuesday said deputies had tried to stop Kizzee for riding his bicycle in violation of vehicle codes, but he dropped his bike and ran. It didn’t provide any more details about the alleged violation.

The deputies momentarily lost sight of him. But when they caught up, he immediately punched one deputy in the face and dropped a jacket, causing a black semiautomatic handgun to fall to the ground, according to the statement.

The shooting occurred when the man “made a motion” toward the gun, the statement said.

Latiera Irby, 29, told the Los Angeles Times that she had stopped by her mother’s house to get her hair done when Kizzee came up to her car and told her: “They’re coming to get me; they’re coming to get me.”

Kizzee offered her money to drive him away.

“I didn’t know who he was running from, so I told him no,” she said.

Irby said a short time later, she saw Kizzee scuffle with a deputy, who backed away and then shot him.

The same deputy and another fired at Kizzee after he fell to the ground, she said, adding: “He had nothing in his hands.”

Police said the handgun was recovered, and no deputies were injured. TV news helicopters showed a gun near the body.