Police Shooting Causes Outrage

People in the Westlake area have been expressing their anger over an officer involved shooting of a day laborer. The incident occurred on Sunday, September 5, 2010, when police received calls regarding a man with a knife threatening pedestrians. When police arrived he was asked in English and Spanish to drop the knife. When he did not comply and ran toward police one of the officers shot him twice. People took to the streets Tuesday night in protest, there were incidents of rocks and bottle being thrown at police and some were arrested. Authorities and city officials did not expect such a reaction since there were witnesses describing that the man had a knife, and that the weapon was recovered at the scene. The counter argument for the department’s defense of force is that the officer should not have shot a man wielding a knife and used non-lethal weapon or aimed for the arms or legs. The man was Manuel Jamines from Solola, Guatemala and his family will be sending his remains to his native country.

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Here is an AP Video covering the story: