REACHING for a gun. It has replaced the fabled
"shiny object in the hand' or the alleged drug-induced behavior excuses
offered by police when shooting unarmed suspects. Within the past two
weeks, two officer-involved shooting deaths of unarmed men in Los
Angeles County one in Long Beach and the other in El Monte point to the
need for a change in not only police procedure, but investigation of
those incidents. The El Monte shooting is especially disturbing as
police initially stopped a car based on a tip that the occupants were
involved in the gangland slaying of a 6-year-old girl in the parking
lot of a convenience store. El Monte Police now say the two aren't
suspects in that incident. Indeed, a day after the police shooting,
videotape of the killing confirm someone else was involved. Why didn't
the two gang detectives wait for this evidence before attempting to
make arrests? Unanswered questions about questionable police procedure
that left 23-year-old David Viera dead when he refused to obey police
commands and allegedly reached for a gun under the passenger seat of a
car in which he was riding. There was no gun. [more]
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