Three of the four officers who struggled with a homeless man in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles – ultimately shooting and killing him, and sparking street protests over police brutality – were specially trained to deal with the mentally ill.
Charlie Beck, the police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said the trio had "completed our most extensive mental illness training over a 36-hour course," the Associated Press reported.
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Beck also defended the officers, and said witness videos of the altercation showed the man, known by his street friends as "Africa," had tried to grab a policeman's gun.
"The way you have conversations, the way you offer options, the way that you give some space, the body language that you portray, the way that you escalate, all that is part of the training," Beck said, during a news conference in which he vowed to launch an internal investigation of the officers' response, AP reported. "I will make [a] judgment on that when I review the totality of the investigation, but on the face of it, it appears they did try all of that."
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Witnesses say police overreacted to the Sunday apprehension of "Africa," who reportedly met the description of a robbery suspect. A video taken by one witness showed police attempting to subdue "Africa" with a Taser and then pulling out guns and firing several times into his body, leaving him dead in the streets. The video shortly after went viral and protesters took to the streets, decrying what they claimed was police brutality.
In the hours since, CNN has posted new video of the altercation at a different angle that purportedly shows the homeless man weaponless.
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"We owe the city a thorough investigation as to what happened," said Mayor Eric Garcetti, AP reported.
