Protests after Los Angeles police kill black man following altercation

Protesters were to hit the streets of Los Angeles on Tuesday, after police officers shot and killed a black man during a violent confrontation.

The man, identified as 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee, was riding his bicycle Monday in a south Los Angeles neighborhood when deputies tried to stop him for a code violation, according to the sheriff’s department.

Kizzee ran away and when deputies caught up to him, he punched one of them in the face while dropping a bundle of clothing he was carrying, authorities said.

“The deputies noticed that inside the clothing items that he dropped was a black semiautomatic handgun, at which time a deputy-involved shooting occurred,” Lieutenant Brandon Dean, of the LA County Sheriff’s Department, told reporters.

The shooting came as protests against police violence and racism have roiled the country in recent months following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Civil right attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said Kizzee was shot more than 20 times and urged witnesses on Twitter to contact him with any information.

“They say he ran, dropped clothes and handgun,” Crump said in a tweet. “He didn’t pick it up, but cops shot him in the back 20+ times then left him for hours.”

Deja, a woman who witnessed the shooting told AFP that she yelled “don’t shoot him, don’t shoot him” as the deputies tried to stop Kizzee, who lived in her neighborhood. (AFP)