LOS ANGELES (AP) – The first 911 caller reported seeing a black man walking down a street shooting a gun in the air. Authorities said they received five more similar calls from witnesses alarmed by what they saw.
A few minutes later, the man was fatally shot by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.
The encounter in the south Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood on Saturday was captured on video and it shows deputies continuing to fire at 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson after he fell and crawled on the pavement.
Investigators said two deputies fired 33 bullets at Robertson after he refused to drop the gun and walked across a busy street to a filling station where a family was pumping gas.
“When he collapsed, his arms were underneath him, and the gun was still in his hand. There was never a time when the weapon was not in his possession,” homicide Capt. Steven Katz said Sunday in response to questions about why the deputies continued to fire on the man after he fell.