Cops Release 2 Videos of Fatal Calif. Shooting

They 'provoked a mentally disturbed person,' lawyer says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2016 9:02 AM CDT

After days of protests, police in El Cajon, Calif. released two videos Friday of Tuesday's fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. Both videos—one from a camera at a taco stand's drive-through window and one from a bystander—show police confronting Ugandan refugee Alfred Olango, but his actions before he is shot are hard to make out, reports Reuters. In the second video, four gunshots can be heard before a woman screams. Protests in the San Diego County city continued for another night Friday but it was much calmer than Thursday night, when five people were arrested, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Relatives say Olango was suffering a mental breakdown, and a lawyer for the family says the video shows that police "provoked a mentally disturbed person." Police say Olango was holding what turned out to be a vaping device with a 3-inch cylinder and adopted a "shooting stance." At a press conference Friday, El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis said the video had been released to counter days of "escalating aggression" that had forced schools and stores to close, the Union-Tribune reports. He was joined by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who told reporters that the FBI is involved in the investigation and the video is just one of numerous pieces of evidence that will be looked at. (More police shooting stories.)

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