LOS ANGELES: A homeless man shot by police in Los Angeles was a French national and convicted criminal, the LA Times reported Tuesday, as protesters continued to voice anger at the killing.
The newspaper identified the man, killed Sunday after a struggle with police caught on a video which went viral, as 39-year-old Charley Saturmin Robinet.
It cited law enforcement records as saying Robinet – identified by others on LA’s Skid Row homeless district only as “Africa” – was convicted of armed robbery 15 years ago and jailed.
At the time he was caught with US$33,500 while attempting to flee the scene of the robbery, later telling authorities he robbed the bank to pay for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, the newspaper reported.
Robinet was released from a federal facility in May, the Times said.
LA police chief Charlie Beck said Monday that the victim, who police have not identified, tried to grab a gun from one of four officers who were trying to restrain him on the city’s Skid Row homeless district.
The video of the killing triggered widespread criticism of police tactics.
On Tuesday morning, dozens of people attended a protest outside LA police headquarters to condemn the killing.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Chief Beck’s got to go!” chanted the protesters, outside a Police Commission meeting.
“Who’s accountable? Is it a mentally challenged individual or poorly trained officer?” asked K.W. Tulloss, the Los Angeles chapter head of the Al Sharpton-led National Action Network.
Steve Diaz, a member of poverty lobby group the Los Angeles Community Action Network, urged the Police Commission to prosecute the officers involved in the shooting.
He called the shooting a “modern day lynching” that was the result of a policy “of having extra deployment in our neighbourhood and nothing better to do than to target homeless individuals, people of low income, in the name of gentrification.”
Representatives from the French consulate in Los Angeles did not immediately return calls seeking confirmation or comment.
A spokesman for the LA County Coroner’s office declined to confirm the identity of the victim, pending notification of next of kin.
He added that an autopsy was being carried out Tuesday to determine the cause of death. -- AFP