(Newser)
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A broiling mob protesting the police shooting death of a Guatemalan immigrant in Los Angeles faced off last night against cops in riot gear who fired non-lethal foam projectiles at demonstrators. At least one man was injured as some 300 people set street fires and gathered outside a police station on the second night of protests against the weekend shooting. A police sign was torn down and eggs and rocks were hurled at the station's windows. Police—who blame a group calling itself the Revolutionary Communist Party for stirring things up—say Manuel Jamines, 37, was shot after he refused to drop a knife he was using to threaten cops.
Only 40 seconds elapsed between the time police confronted Jamines and when he was shot dead, according to police chief Charlie Beck, who has launched an investigation into the killing. Those who knew him described Jamines as a friendly, hard-working father of three who liked to drink on weekends but was never violent, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Killing a drunk isn't right," said Jamines' cousin. But "getting drunk and threatening bystanders and LAPD officers with a knife is self-destructive in any language," the Los Angeles Police Protective League said in a statement. "This was not a controversial shooting."
