May 07--Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said Wednesday he was "very concerned" by an officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed homeless man in Venice, saying he had not yet seen any evidence that would justify the shooting.
Beck said he had reviewed a security tape showing the incident, but did not detail what it showed. He cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages, but said that so far, "I don't see the supporting evidence that I normally would."
"Any time an unarmed person is shot by a Los Angeles police officer, it takes extraordinary circumstances to justify that," he said. "I have not see those extraordinary circumstances at this point."
Beck said the LAPD would host a town hall meeting in Venice on Thursday to discuss the incident.
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FOR THE RECORD
4:59 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said police would host a Tuesday town hall meeting in Venice. The meeting will be on Thursday.
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The man, whom friends said was known by the nickname "Dizzle," was described as a transient. He was in his 20s, L.A. County coroner's officials said.
About 11:30 p.m., officers with the LAPD's Pacific Division responded to a call from an employee at a local business reporting that a man was harassing customers near Windward and Pacific avenues.
Two officers found the man on the south sidewalk west of Windward Avenue and after a brief conversation he walked away toward the Venice boardwalk.
As officers returned to their police cruiser they saw the man get into a physical altercation with a bar security guard on the sidewalk nearby, police said.
"The officers attempted to detain the suspect and an altercation occurred between the two officers and the suspect," the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement. "During the physical altercation, an officer-involved shooting occurred."
Officers, according to the LAPD, performed CPR on the man until paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital. One of the officers hurt his knee during the struggle, Det. Meghan Aguilar said.
The officers were not wearing body cameras, and there was no dashboard camera that captured the incident, police said. Investigators planned to canvass nearby businesses whose security cameras may have recorded the shooting
By mid-morning Wednesday, a small crowd gathered near the yellow tape blocking Windward Avenue, shouting at the LAPD officers standing on the other side. Tourists and joggers stopped to watch, with many taking out their cellphone cameras to document the shouting.
"The police are mercenaries!" someone shouted.
"I hope your kid is walking down the street and gets shot!" another added.
As the crowd shouted, Allison Holden, 23, knelt quietly on a curb to write a message on a small white towel. She was friends with Dizzle, she said, describing him as a man who was affectionate toward others, always calling her "Sister." He always said goodbye with a high five and by saying, "Loving you," she said.
She stood up and faced the officers, holding up the towel toward them. Its message, written in green marker: "No justice, no peace. We love miss you Dizzle!"
Venice has long been a magnet for transients and affluent homebuyers alike, and the two groups have generally coexisted in a community known for embracing people on society's fringes.
But with gentrification and homelessness on the rise, there have been increased tensions.
Pete White with the Los Angeles Community Action Network said police have been focusing more on Venice's homeless as new residents and businesses have moved in.
"We're talking about sweeps of encampments, taking of property, making it as uncomfortable as possible for people in the area," White said. "And there's a curfew on the boardwalk that firmly targets poor people and houseless people, not the new, hip people.... They have totally dehumanized the houseless population in Venice."
White questioned whether Tuesday's incident would have resulted in a shooting if the man did not appear to be homeless. He added that the Venice shooting happened only two months after LAPD officers shot and killed a homeless man in skid row, another gentrifying area.
"I was not surprised to hear that it happened," White said of Tuesday night's shooting. "I was, of course, outraged."
On Wednesday morning, Emanuel Stone, who said he has been living on the streets of Venice for more than five months, was among several dozen homeless people lined up for the 9:30 a.m. breakfast at Bread and Roses Cafe, a soup kitchen run by St. Joseph Center.
Stone, 57, a retired plumber, said conflicts between police and the homeless in the beachfront community were inevitable.
"When you've got mentally ill people mixed with so many people with no housing and nobody's getting help, there's only so many things [police] can do," he said. "Someone needs to look at this situation big time."
Brian Connelly, a homeless member of Occupy Venice who was also waiting for breakfast, said, "There are broken people everywhere."
The shooting was the first of three incidents in about eight hours in which LAPD officers fired their weapons. About half an hour after the Venice incident, officers with the department's crime suppression detail shot and wounded a man who had pointed a gun at them from a roof in South L.A., authorities said.
About 7:30 a.m. in the San Fernando Valley, officers shot at a man during a parole compliance check in the 12000 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. No one was hit by the gunfire and the man was taken into custody, police said.
Peter Bibring, a senior attorney for the ACLU based in Los Angeles, said the number of shooting incidents in such a short amount of time was concerning.
He called on the LAPD to release any video it obtains related to the Venice shooting, saying that "video is the best way for the public to understand."
"There were three shootings in eight hours," Bibring said, adding that there was "little transparency, really."
"The only thing the public gets is the department's summary of the investigation," Bibring said. "For such an incredible use of authority -- the power to kill someone based on immediate judgment -- the public needs more transparency."
Holden, Dizzle's friend, said she was sleeping Tuesday night when a friend came to her group and woke everyone up. "Dizzle just got shot," the friend said.
The group rushed to the scene. By the time they got there, Holden said, police cars had swarmed the area and put up yellow tape.
On Wednesday morning, gray clouds hung over the Venice boardwalk as news spread of what had happened the night before. "Did you hear about Dizzle?" people asked as they stopped their bikes or skateboards to talk to others.
As the man's friends gathered at their regular spot -- a grassy patch of park near skateboard ramps -- they recalled a young man they considered part of their family.
"He was a really good dude," Holden said. "He's one of us."
Dizzle's friends said he had been in Venice for just a couple of months. They agreed he was from somewhere on the East Coast and said they could tell by the way he pronounced "coffee" like "cawfee." One friend said he was from New York. Another said Dizzle was a former cement worker. Dizzle's rough hands, Renato Ibarra said, were proof he was a "hard-working guy."
Dizzle had a black dog, a Labrador named Dozer, who was "his baby," said another friend who identified himself as C.R.
Dizzle's friends described a friendly man known for his "hand hugs" -- grabbing hold of someone's hand before saying goodbye.
But, they acknowledged, Dizzle also had his own struggles. One friend said he was a recovering drug addict. Others said he liked to drink.
"He's a drinker. He has a drinking problem," Holden said. "But we all have problems."
Dizzle had been drinking Tuesday, his friends said, when he left their group to go toward the boardwalk.
"He could barely walk," said Bill Hinson, 37. "He said he wanted to raise money for a beer this morning."
Dizzle's friends acknowledged that he would sometimes be vocal when he drank -- one mentioned a "mean streak" -- but said they had never seen him be very aggressive.
Jerad "Street" Essig said he was playing music at the arcade on Windward Avenue when a man with a dog came up to him and tried to give him a hug. The man said his name was Dizzle, Essig said.
The man was "aggressive and drunk, but friendly aggressive," Essig said. He said the two men hugged a few times.
Essig said Dizzle appeared confused and bothered by something, and at one point asked Essig to take care of his dog if something were to happen to him. Essig agreed.
Essig left the boardwalk to meet with friends. When he came back about 15 minutes later, he said, police cars had blocked off the scene. The man named Dizzle was on the ground.
For breaking California news, follow @geholland @lacrimes and @katemather.
Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this story.
UPDATES
3:32 p.m.: This post has been updated with comments from LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
2:33 p.m.: This post has been updated with a narrative of events that night from the LAPD.
1:37 p.m.: This post has been updated with comment from Pete White of the L.A. Community Action Network.
12:51 p.m. This post has been updated with additional comments from Dizzle's friends.
12:14 p.m.: This post has been updated with comments from Peter Bibring, a senior attorney for the ACLU.
10:59 a.m.: This post has been updated with details about a small crowd gathering near the scene of the shooting.
8:43 a.m.: This post has been updated with additional information.
This post was originally published at 6:31 a.m.
