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Twelve blocks away from where Ezell Ford died, a coalition of Los Angeles Civil Rights leaders stood on the steps of the LAPD's 77th Street Station, joined hands with a police captain, and offered a five point plan to reduce deadly encounters between police and community members--read unarmed blacks.
"Nobody wants to see anyone in this community shot down, on either side," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who is the president of the Los Angeles Urban Roundtable.
He unveiled what he calls the Ezell Ford Police Conflict Reduction Plan.
"We do not have to continually stand here and stand on street corners, in front of police stations, marching, demonstrations, because we've had yet another Ezell Ford," he said.
The plan calls for:
•The mandatory use of body cameras
•A review of deadly force policies
•Retraining officers on mental health issues
•The establishment of a conflict mediation task force
•A mandate referring all officer involved shootings to criminal prosecutors
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LAPD Capt. Cory Palka, who stood next to Hutchinson, said he will forward the plan to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
"We are partners in this community and we will sit down with the chief and the chiefs office and we will go through every item in the plan, and through a collaborative process we will see what we can work toward achieving," Palka said.
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While many of the suggestions, according to the LAPD, are to some extent already in practice, it would seem that the mandate that all officer shootings be referred to criminal prosecutors is a big mountain to climb.
Ezell Ford, an unarmed, mentally ill black man was killed by police in South Los Angeles last August 11th. The autopsy, released yesterday, shows he was shot three times -- once in the right side, once in the right back and once in the right arm.
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According to the autopsy the back and side gunshot wounds were fatal and the gunshot wound on his back showed the surrounding skin had a "muzzle imprint" suggesting that the gun was pressed against his back when the shot was fired.
"The autopsy does not make any judgment about the conduct of the officers in the shooting or provide a detailed narrative of what occurred." http://www.latimes.com/...
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck cautioned that the autopsy was just one part of the department's ongoing investigation into Ford's death. But he said nothing included in the report was inconsistent with the account provided by his officers.
Beck said the officers had gotten out of their car to speak to Ford but that the 25-year-old walked away. Beck said the officers followed Ford to a nearby driveway, where Ford crouched between a car and some bushes. When one of the officers reached toward Ford, the chief said, he grabbed the officer and forced him to the ground.
Beck said Ford pinned the officer to the ground and tried to remove his handgun from his holster. The officer yelled to his partner that Ford had his gun, Beck said, prompting the officer's partner to fire two rounds that hit Ford.
The third gunshot came when the officer on the ground grabbed his backup weapon, reached around Ford and fired a close-range shot that struck him in the back.
While Beck said there was nothing inconsistent with the officers' account of the altercation, it does seem somewhat incredulous to this citizen that police would fire at the suspect while he was directly on top of an officer lest they risk shooting their colleague, but I am a layman and was not there. Perhaps if they truly believed Ezell had the officer's gun the other officers figured the risk was worth it. But the whole circumstance of the officer placing himself in such a defenseless position also seems incredulous.
Chief Beck did state that the investigation was ongoing and indicated that the department had not contacted a civilian who directly saw the incident.
Beck noted the difficulty the department has had in tracking down eyewitnesses, saying that although the attorney representing Ford's family had provided the LAPD with a list of witnesses, some had refused to cooperate.
It is not clear if Beck was referring to a friend of Ford's who has said she witnessed the confrontation and didn’t see any resistance from Ford. The family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department and the two officers who shot him, whom they say were familiar with the neighborhood and aware that Ford was mentally ill.