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Eugene

(62,742 posts)
Tue Aug 9, 2016, 07:48 PM Aug 2016

California man shot by police in July mistaken for carjacking suspect

Source: Reuters

World | Tue Aug 9, 2016 7:55pm EDT

California man shot by police in July mistaken for carjacking suspect

LOS ANGELES | BY ALEX DOBUZINSKIS

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department acknowledged on Tuesday its deputies were mistaken in last month's shooting death of an unarmed black man they encountered lying motionless on the ground and erroneously assumed was a carjacking suspect.

Relatives of the 27-year-old victim, Donnell Thompson Jr., whom they described as suffering from a learning disability, plan to bring a civil rights lawsuit against the county over the July 28 predawn incident, said their attorney, Brian Dunn.

The deputy who fired the fatal shots has been placed on leave, but an investigation into whether the shooting was justified under the circumstances is ongoing, the sheriff's department said in a statement.

The incident caps a growing series of high-profile deaths of unarmed black individuals by police in cities across the country that have reignited a debate over the use of lethal force by police officers and the role of racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-california-idUSKCN10K2PQ
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California man shot by police in July mistaken for carjacking suspect (Original Post) Eugene Aug 2016 OP
"mistaken" scscholar Aug 2016 #1
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