Black guy liked his gun


The genius concerned

Police say that the man fatally shot by Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies on Saturday refused to drop his gun before he was shot.   Close-up security footage shows that 28-year-old father-of-three Nicholas Robertson held a gun in his hand as he lay dying on the ground.

Two deputies fired 33 bullets at the gunman after Robertson refused to drop the gun and walked across a busy street to a gas station where a family was pumping gas, Sheriff homicide Cpt Steven Katz said.

Robertson walked down a residential street and then along a busy commercial area holding the gun and acting strangely, Katz said, adding that he went into at least one business ‘behaving erratically with a gun in hand’.

He said that witnesses reported Robertson fired six to seven shots in the air and briefly went into a car wash and a pizza parlor before the deputies arrived.

Officers said they found Robertson at a gas station beside a busy road at around 11am and repeatedly asked him to drop his weapon, and when he didn't they opened fire.

Katz told the Los Angeles Times that ‘public safety was critical here’ because there were people in the area and at the gas station Robertson was walking toward.

Cell phone footage shot from a restaurant across the street shows officers firing at the man as he falls to the floor, and then continue shooting as he attempts to crawl away.

Roberson later died at the scene, where officers recovered a loaded .45 caliber pistol.

The cell-phone video footage, which starts seconds before the officers open fire, does not appear to show the main aiming at officers, but rather shows cops following him as he walks away from them.

Lieutenant Eddie Hernandez told KABC-TV that his department is aware of the video and that it is being looked at, and appealed for anyone else with footage to come forward.

He said: 'The video is just one piece of evidence that's going to be examined as part of a comprehensive, protracted, long investigation and that'll be analyzed against the physical evidence, the witness statements and the deputies' statements.'

Katz told the LA Times that the investigation is ongoing, and that Robertson may have had a ‘domestic discord’ with his wife that could have prompted his actions.

Authorities have released three 911 calls from witnesses who saw Robertson firing gunshots in the air minutes before the man was fatally shot by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies.

The sheriff's department released the calls on Sunday in addition to the security video showing Robertson stretched on the ground with a gun in his hand.

The calls were made several minutes before two deputies confronted Robertson near a gas station.

Within hours of the shooting protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting and began chanting 'no justice, no peace' at officers.

At one point, the crowd tore away 'caution' tape and deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had to hold it up.

Speaking to the LA Times, one of Roberston's in-laws, Tracy Brown, 47, of Lynwood, said: 'They shot him. They shot him; as he crawled, they continued to shoot him.'

Nekeisha Robertson, described by relatives as the suspect's wife, sobbed uncontrollably as Brown, shouted to police: 'He ain't getting away with it!'

Brown said Robertson graduated from Lynwood High School and took good care of his three children, adding that the family didn't know anything about Robertson carrying a gun.

Seth Stoughton, a criminal law professor at the University of South Carolina, said there are circumstances in which officers could shoot a man walking away from them, and the fact that Robertson was armed will play in their favor.

He said: 'If the deputies reasonably believe the suspect with a firearm presents a danger by walking toward a gas station with vehicles and bystanders, they would be justified in using deadly force.

'It does not strike me as egregious like [the] Walter Scott video here in South Carolina. If the suspect wasn't armed or they didn't have a solid basis for that belief, that would more problematic.'

Original report here


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