Two police officers were indicted for the 2018 fatal shooting of a Black man in Torrance, California.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced the indictment on April 17 after his predecessor declined to press charges against the officers.
The Los Angeles Times reports that a grand jury indicted Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon for voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Christopher DeAndre Mitchell on Dec. 9, 2018. The indictment was reached on March 24 and unsealed on April 17.
Mitchell was killed after Chavez and Concannon approached him at approximately 7:58 p.m. as he sat in an alleged stolen Honda in the parking lot of Ralph’s grocery store at 1770 West Carson Street. The two officers parked their police cruiser behind Mitchell and exited before yelling, “Police!”
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Video of the stop shows Mitchell complying with the officers and placing his hands on the steering wheel. The officers ordered Mitchell to get out of the car repeatedly, but he refused. The officers then approached the vehicle and opened fire and killed Mitchell, later claiming that he reached toward his lap for a gun.
The officers later claimed they found a “break barrel air rifle” between Mitchell’s legs.
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to press charges against Chavez and Concannon, claiming that they acted in self-defense.
“Based on Mitchell’s failure to follow the officers’ directions, his continued efforts to conceal the object in his lap, the physical appearance of the object, and the movement of his hands toward the object,” wrote the prosecutor in 2019. “It was reasonable for the officers to believe that the object was a firearm and to respond with deadly force.”
Gascón reopened the case to…
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