Anaheim
Police Shooting Sparks Protests
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait has called for an independent probe into a fatal
police shooting and has asked the state Attorney General’s office to get
involved in the case.
Police shot and fatally wounded a man on Saturday about 4 p.m. while patrolling
an area in the 700 block of North Anna Drive, a location police say they have
seen a spike in crime.
The case sparked a protest that prompted police to use pepper balls and
rubber bullets to disperse the crowd and at least two people were bitten when a
police dog got out of an unsecured squad car.
During a press conference on Sunday, Tait said he was calling on
Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate the case.
"Transparency is essential,” Tait said during a press conference at
the Anaheim Police Department headquarters at which some 70 protesters stormed
the lobby. “The investigation will seek the truth. And whatever the truth is,
we will own it.”
The press conference came as a protest over the shooting resumed into a
second day. Demonstrators -- including members of Occupy Orange County -- stood
outside the Anaheim Police Department headquarters and shouted "No
Justice! No Peace!"
The protest was the latest in a series that began Saturday night when
police said a small group of agitators threw rocks and bottles at police and
set a trash bin on fire.
Three people were detained and the turmoil was quelled.
“It's not uncommon for people in a large crowd to be back deep in the
crowd, inciting violence against the police," Welter said. "In this
case, that appeared to be what was happening."
Police identified one of the agitators as a known gang member. When
police tried to arrest him, the crowd began to rush officers, who fired pepper
balls and non-lethal rounds, police said.
"It appeared as though they were going to try to take the prisoner
and get the prisoner free from the officers," Welter said.
Later, police learned that he had been involved in a gang-related
homicide in May in Anaheim. He was booked into custody on a murder charge. His
identity was not released.
The melee was exacerbated when a police dog got out of a squad car and
bit people, something Welter apologized for.
“We’re extremely sorry,” he said. “I’m certainly very concerned about
anyone who was bit. It's embarrasing to us. The officer, I'm telling you, was
just devastated."
He said two people were bitten, one of whom received medical treatment.
J.R. Lagunas was one of the men bitten by the dog. The dog bit Lagunas
in the arm. He said he was attacked as he was walking with his toddler son who
was in a stoller. They toppled to the ground. The baby was not injured.
Televised video showed at least one man with apparent bite marks on his
back and a German shepherd biting the arm of another person.
The dog got out of the squad car through an open window between the
front seats and the compartment in the back and through an open door, Welter
said.
The turmoil occurred hours after police fatally shot a man, identified
as Manuel Angel Diaz, after a foot chase through an alley.
While Diaz's mother mourned the death she struggled to understand what
happened and why.
"He was shot first in the back," she told NBC4 through tears.
"He was down. Then they shot him the second time. Then they shot him in
the head."
He was shot after police noticed him talking with two other men in the
alley, an area Welter said has seen a recent spike in gang and narcotics
crimes.
When the man saw police, he ran. The two other men disappeared, Welter
said.
During the chase, police saw an object thrown on a roof and an object
tossed over a fence, Welter said. Police said they found no weapon.
The chase continued when the man ignored officers' commands to stop.
After he was shot, he was taken to a hospital where he died at 7 p.m., police
said.
"We are not sure exactly what happened," Welter said. "We
haven't interviewed all the witnesses in the area."
In addition to the police investigation, the Orange County District
Attorney's Office will conduct a probe, as is routine in officer-involved
shootings.
City officials, meanwhile, called for calm while a full and transparent
investigation is conducted.
"... we will do everything we can to find the truth about what
truly happened out there," Councilwoman Lorri Galloway told the Register.
The shooting comes as the city struggles with rising crime and as
families of shooting victims have been holding weekly protests at the police
station.
Anaheim was among six California cities with a population over 100,000
that saw the biggest spikes in violent crime in 2011, according to an analysis
of FBI crime data released last month
Demonstrators Storm Anaheim
Police Headquarters Over Officer-Involved Shooting
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Demonstrators stormed a police
department in Orange County, Calif., on Sunday to protest an officer-involved
shooting that left an unarmed man dead and led to a violent clash between
witnesses and police.
A crowd swarmed the Anaheim Police headquarters' lobby
Sunday as Chief John Welter held a news conference to discuss what happened the
night before. The protesters chanted "no justice, no peace" and
"cops, pigs, murderers" as officers stood by and watched.
Welter said two officers were placed on paid leave after
one of them fatally shot 24-year-old Manuel Diaz.
He said the officers approached three men in an alleyway
when they ran away. One of the officers chased Diaz to the front of an
apartment complex where the shooting occurred.
Welter would not say what led the officer to shoot Diaz,
citing an independent investigation by the county's district attorney office.
Police said Diaz was a known gang member.
Mayor Tom Tait said he will ask the state attorney
general to assist in the probe.
"Transparency is essential. Whatever the truth is,
we will own it," Tait said.
The shooting sparked a melee in the neighborhood as some threw
rocks and bottles at officers who were securing the scene for investigators to
collect evidence. Sgt. Bob Dunn, the department's spokesman, said that as
officers detained an instigator, the crowd advanced on officers so they fired
bean bags and pepper balls at them.
Video captured by a KCAL-TV crew showed a chaotic scene
as some people ducked to the ground and others scattered screaming. A man is
seen yelling at an officer even as a weapon is pointed at him; two adults
huddled to shield a boy and girl. Meanwhile, a police dog charged at several
people sitting on the grass, including a woman and a child in a stroller,
before biting a man in the arm.
Dunn said the dog accidentally got out of a patrol car.
He said he didn't know whether police warned the crowd to disperse before
firing the rubber bullets and pepper balls.
Throughout the night, police in multiple marked and
unmarked squad cars attempted to control an unruly crowd gathered near the
shooting scene, the Orange County Register reported.
Some in the crowd moved a Dumpster into an intersection
and set its trash on fire on at least three separate occasions, while officers
kept responding to move it out of the way of traffic.
Dunn said five people, two of them juveniles, were
arrested during the unrest. He said gang detectives are involved in the
investigation.
Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the
shooting, told the Register that the man had his back to the officer. Ventura said
the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, she
said, adding that he was struck by another bullet in the head. Ventura said
another officer handcuffed the man, who by then was on the ground and not
moving.
"They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in
his head, and I saw blood on his face," Ventura told the newspaper.
Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations
because the shooting is under investigation.
The other two men who ran away have not been captured,
but police impounded their vehicle which was abandoned at the scene, Dunn said.