Police issue. read this if you gotta soul Options

[XS4lv1Truch0x]

this happened right around the block where i used 2 live

aka the hood


LONG BEACH, Calif. — East 67th Street is part of a tight-knit community where everyone seems to know everyone, neighbors look after each other's children and birthdays are often celebrated together.

It was a few yards from one such communal party Saturday that police shot and killed Roketi Mosesue, 46, an unarmed mentally ill man, leaving residents of this diverse cul-de-sac shocked and angry.

On Monday, several gave accounts differing sharply from the police version.

"He didn't try to aggressively do nothing," said neighbor Cranston Howard, 39, who was cooking burgers at the party a few houses down the street from where Mosesue was shot. "He was face down when they shot him."

Police say Mosesue was killed as he lay on a sidewalk after two officers, responding to calls about a man behaving violently and erratically, confronted him on the street.

Mosesue charged at the officers, who tried to control him with batons. When Mosesue tried to grab a baton from one officer, they used a Taser but the stun gun had no effect, Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt said. Mosesue then allegedly punched one officer in the face and both fell to the ground.

The other officer, fearing for his partner's safety and his own, shot Mosesue multiple times in the upper torso, Pratt said. He was pronounced dead soon after.

A dozen or so residents and family members, many with tears in their eyes and still reeling from the shooting, congregated around a makeshift memorial Monday. Candles flickered on a patch of dried blood and flowers were placed alongside.

Several people from this mainly Samoan and black neighborhood said they saw the shooting. Mosesue's cousin Lorena Levi, 17, said she saw three police officers beating him with a baton and he put his hands up to protect himself from the blows. He did not try to grab the baton.

"He said, 'What did I do, OK, OK,'" Levi said. "He had no shirt on, you could hear the baton slapping against his skin."

Levi and several others said Mosesue was mentally ill. Mosesue was diagnosed about two years ago with terminal lung cancer and schizophrenia, his nephew, La-auli To-omalatai, 37, told the Los Angeles Times.

Billy Moses, the son of Mosesue's girlfriend, told KNBC-TV news he called police after Mosesue made threats.

"If I would have known that was going to happen, I never would have even lifted the phone," Moses said. "It was one of those caught-up-in-the-moment things."

Some residents recalled Mosesue would talk to himself but was friendly and would often play with kids on the block.

"If he was a threat do you think we would have let him play with our kids?" neighbor Tashuna Paige, 38, said.

Ana Taliu, 19, Mosesue's niece, said two officers struck him with batons and a third shot him several times. Other witnesses said they saw officers kick Mosesue in the head as he lay on the floor and that he was not struggling when he was shot.

"The cop's hand was shaking," said neighbor Chrystal Pagota, 23, one of those whose birthday was being celebrated. "He said, 'I can't believe I shot him.'"

Several witnesses said no police officers fell to the ground with Mosesue and both were standing over him when he was shot between three and six times in the back.

Patricia Mathis, 48, said her son's girlfriend took pictures of the incident with her cell phone camera but police grabbed it and smashed it.

Police said only two officers were involved in the shooting. Both took scheduled days off Monday and were expected to return to regular duty Wednesday. The officers were not identified.

Pratt said she could not respond to many of the allegations as the investigation was ongoing, but said more information would be released Tuesday.

After the altercation, the officers were confronted by a hostile crowd of about 40 people until additional units arrived, police said. Neighbor Cranston Howard countered the crowd was not hostile and only gathered to investigate the sound of the gunfire.

He said he was arrested for obstruction and an officer hit him with a flashlight, causing a cut that required several bruises. The police department did not immediately respond to the allegation.

According to some neighbors, Mosesue lay dead on the sidewalk for almost an hour before anyone tended to him. Tomicka Rollerson, 30, a certified nurse assistant, said she offered medical assistance but an officer pointed a gun at her and told her to "Back up."

A preliminary investigation found Mosesue died from multiple gunshot wounds, Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said, though it was not clear if the bullets struck him from the front or from behind.

A full autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va., which aims to improve treatment for the mentally ill, said police shootings involving mentally ill happen often.

"There are many too many of these incidences," Torrey said. "And the really sad thing is most of them are preventable if the person was being treated."