Man shot to death by L.A. County deputy was not a carjacking suspect, officials say
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-shooting-20160809-snap-story.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department acknowledged Tuesday that a man who was shot and killed by a deputy in Compton last month was not connected to a carjacking that led to the shooting, as it had reported earlier.
Donnell Thompson, 27, was fatally shot by a deputy on July 28 near the 800 block of West Stockwell Street during an intensive search for a carjacking suspect who had allegedly fired at deputies, striking their patrol cruiser. At the time, the Sheriff’s Department said Thompson matched the description of one of the carjacking suspects.
“We have determined that there is no evidence that Mr. Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle, nor that he was involved in the assault on the deputies,” the department said in the statement.
The announcement came hours before Thompson’s family called on Los Angeles County supervisors to hold the deputies involved in the shooting accountable. The family plans to file a federal civil rights claim against the county Wednesday, according to attorney Brian Dunn.
Deputies came across Thompson during the search when a neighbor reported finding a man lying in his yard, then called 911 around 5 a.m., the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Sheriff’s homicide Capt. Steven Katz said deputies from the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau, which handles dangerous tactical situations, tried to use several less-lethal force options against Thompson after numerous attempts to communicate with him failed. Thompson was lying with his left hand under his head and his right hand under his mid-section, Katz said.
Deputies at the scene were concerned Thompson might have had a gun next to him or been involved in the carjacking, and they relayed that to the tactical officers, Sheriff’s homicide Lt. John Corina said. A flashbang was deployed, but had no effect, according to Katz, who said the tactical officers then fired three rubber bullets at Thompson.
Two of those rounds struck Thompson, who then stood up, looked around, and ran toward an armored sheriff’s vehicle. A deputy in that vehicle fired two rounds from an M4 rifle, striking Thompson twice in the upper torso.
“His concern was if he gets past me, then he’s in the community, can get into somebody’s house, then we have a barricaded suspect,” Katz said of the deputy’s decision to open fire.
Another suspect in the carjacking case, 24-year-old Robert Alexander, had been found hiding in another person’s home shortly before deputies came into contact with Thompson, Katz said. That suspect had yet to be officially identified as the carjacker, according to Katz.
The fact that deputies were still concerned that another carjacking suspect might be on the loose and that the one man already taken into custody had been found in a nearby home made the deputies who confronted Thompson more concerned about the danger he might pose if he got away, Katz said.
Alexander, who was charged with attempted murder and carjacking, has an extensive criminal record, Katz said. He was said to be wearing a dark-colored sleeveless vest and shorts. At the time of the shooting, Thompson was wearing what appeared to be a grey Kobe Bryant jersey and shorts.
While he declined to call the shooting a mistake, Katz said the incident had certainly raised questions.
“Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadn’t happened?” he said. “It speaks for itself.”
No weapon was recovered.
Thompson’s relatives said Thursday morning that the 27-year-old — who was nicknamed “Lil’ Bo’ Peep” — had no criminal record and would never pose a threat to anyone. Thompson may have had an undiagnosed mental disability, according to his oldest sister, Matrice Stanley, who said he was taking classes for people with diminished mental capacities at El Camino College’s Compton Center.
”His age was 27, but mentally, he was not at that age,” she said. “Mentally, he was probably 16.”
Stanley and other relatives attended a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning to protest the shooting. Emotions ran high inside the meeting, as chants of “say his name!” and “Donnell Thompson” echoed throughout the chamber between brief speeches from the man’s relatives.
”When you killed my brother, you killed me,” Stanley said.
Relatives did not know why Thompson was on the street where the shooting took place, but believed he became startled when approached by deputies. Sheriff’s officials said they were also unsure why Thompson was there.
Dunn, the family’s attorney, said a federal civil rights claim will be filed against the county on Wednesday.
Donnell Thompson, 27, was fatally shot by a deputy on July 28 near the 800 block of West Stockwell Street during an intensive search for a carjacking suspect.
“Everything that we’ve learned up to this point has demonstrated that the SWAT officers or the deputies that responded, from the initial contact with Mr. Thompson up until the shooting, behaved in an aggressive manner and did not adopt a tactical attitude that would have de-escalated this encounter into a peaceful one,” Dunn said. “The result is that we have an unarmed individual, who had committed no crime, who once again has been the victim of a law enforcement homicide.”
Speaking to the county’s Board of Supervisors, relatives pointed out that Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo. They said they were horrified to see Thompson, who was black, become the latest name associated with the national controversy over how police use force, particularly against blacks.
Relatives described Thompson as a harmless, shy man who was a fan of Michael Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers. Danielle Moore, a 21-year-old former classmate, said Thompson could often be found playing the card game “Uno” at Compton Center, adding that he rarely lost unless his friends cheated at the game.
The youngest of four siblings, Thompson lived with his father in Compton and mostly kept to himself, relatives said.
”You had to be this close to hear him [speak],” said Thompson’s cousin, Larmar Avila, as he held his finger to his ear. “He’s soft-spoken. He was gentle. What was the threat?”
The Sheriff’s Department’s announcement came after a lengthy review, including a special session by the department’s Critical Incident Review Committee on Monday, to determine whether Thompson was involved in the carjacking and the alleged assault on the deputies.
The committee, which included assistant sheriffs, chiefs, commanders, personnel from risk management and training, the Executive Force Review Committee chair, county counsel, inspector general and sheriff’s constitutional policing advisers, reviewed gunshot testing residue, DNA evidence to determine if Thompson was in the carjacking vehicle, fingerprints and interviews with family, deputies and witnesses.
The deputy has been reassigned to non-field duties, though sheriff’s officials have not released his name. The investigation into the fatal shooting is continuing and findings will be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
The Sheriff’s Department initially reported that Thompson was one of two carjacking suspects.
The events leading to the shooting began when Compton station deputies stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation near 134th Street and Alameda Avenue about 2:30 a.m. After running the plates, the deputies discovered the vehicle was stolen earlier that night in South Los Angeles. When the deputies called for backup, the driver sped away. That started a chase during which shots were fired at the pursuing deputies.
The carjacker drove through the schoolyard at Jefferson Elementary and crashed into multiple fences, according to Katz. The chase ended when the vehicle crashed into the curb in the 13400 block of Compton Avenue.
According to authorities, once the car stopped, one suspect exited the vehicle and there was an exchange of gunfire. Several shots struck the deputies’ cruiser but no deputies were injured.
Authorities said the gunman and another suspect escaped into a nearby neighborhood, so officials cordoned off several blocks and set up a perimeter.
At one point, the gunman forced his way into a home in the 2000 block of North Slater Avenue, where deputies found him hiding, Katz said. He was taken into custody and was found to match the description of one of the carjacking suspects.
At about 5 a.m., they were notified about Thompson, who was 200 to 300 feet from the initial gun battle with deputies.
At the Compton neighborhood Tuesday morning, neighbors were reluctant to talk.
Just feet away from Bandera Avenue and Stockwell Street, outside a light green stucco home, several votive candles and flowers were placed on the sidewalk. Some were lined up to form the letter "D."
"R.I.P bro/best friend" was written with a black marker on a red candle.
The troubling details of Thompson’s death come as the Sheriff’s Department is investigating two other recent shootings of unarmed men, and two years after another mistaken identity shooting rocked the agency.
In 2014, sheriff’s officials acknowledged that deputies mistakenly shot and killed an aspiring TV producer whom they thought was a stabbing suspect. John Winkler, 30, had gone to a neighbor's apartment in West Hollywood where a man was holding people hostage and tried to help. Winkler was shot when he rushed out of the apartment with another victim who had been trapped inside the apartment with a third victim and the suspect.
Deputies also shot an unarmed homeless man, 51-year-old William Bowers, in Castaic while trying to question him on Aug. 2. Bowers had jumped off a bike and attempted to flee when he was fatally shot in the upper torso, authorities said. Five days later, a deputy shot an unarmed suspect inside a residence in Inglewood. The suspect had fled into the home after a deputy attempted to stop him from spraying “gang graffiti” on a nearby wall, the department said in a statement.
The supervisors did not discuss the Thompson case after hearing from his relatives on Tuesday, but Supervisor Hilda Solis offered a brief statement of condolences to the family.
“There are members of the board who are sympathetic, and we care about you, and we care about your family and our neighborhoods,” she said.