Now that the demonstrations have subsided in Charlotte, North Carolina, a San Diego neighborhood is facing potential unrest in the wake of a police shooting involving a black man.
A black man was shot in an encounter with El Cajon Police Tuesday, multiple witnesses said, while a woman wailed nearby, demanding to know why police shot her brother.Hours later, police officers told NBC 7 San Diego the man, now identified as Alfred Olango, was acting erratically and failed to comply, although they did not release details on the specific threat he presented to officers.Dozens of officers swarmed a public shopping center in the heart of El Cajon at 1 p.m. The community is approximately 30 miles east of downtown San Diego.
El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis offered further details as the incident is under investigation.
…The man had allegedly been walking in traffic in the 800 block of Broadway before a pair of officers arrived at 2:11 p.m. Tuesday and found him behind a restaurant, he said.He ignored multiple instructions from an officer and “concealed his hand in his pants pockets,” Davis said. The man paced back and forth as the officers talked to him, then “rapidly drew an object from his front pants pockets, placed both hands together on it and extended it rapidly toward [one] officer, taking what appeared to be a shooting stance,” the chief said.The man, he said, put the object in the officer’s face.At that point, the other officer fired a Taser and the officer who had the object pointed at him fired his handgun, striking the man. No firearm was found at the scene.
Demonstrators subsequently gathered in front of the scene of the incident.
On Tuesday night, authorities chose not to clear the hundreds of protesters who gathered at the scene of the fatal shooting. A handful of officers in riot gear, some with barking police dogs formed a line, appearing ready to disperse the crowd at a strip mall parking lot in the 800 block of Broadway. But the officers were vastly outnumbered by the large and vocal crowd, which included people of all races and ages.The officers stood in a line for about 10 minutes. Then, they retreated to their cars which were parked in the alley. As officers drove off, a few protesters spat on patrol cars and yelled obscenities at them.
More protests are planned for today. Let’s hope San Diego doesn’t become the West Coast version of Charlotte.
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