Fatal Police Shooting of Dijon Kizzee Sparks Protests in Los Angeles

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a 29-years old black man named Dijon Kizzee during a confrontation Monday in South Los Angeles.

According to the Sheriff’s department, Kizzee was riding a bicycle at about 3:15 p.m. local time against the vehicle codes, but when the deputies stopped him and approached him, he got off his bicycle and ran away.

The deputies later caught the suspect up and approached him, but he punched one of the deputies in the face and dropped clothing items he had been carrying, Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean told reporters. 

The deputies noticed that inside the clothing items he dropped was a black semiautomatic handgun, then the deputies opened fire, shooting the man several times.

The man, later identified by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office as Kizzee, was pronounced dead at the scene, Dean said.

Activist Najee Ali, who represents the family as her attorney, denies that Kizzee was a threat at the shooting time. “Being in possession of a gun, but actually using a gun, having it in your hands are two different things,” Ali said, adding “he did not point the gun” at officers.

The family of Dijon Kizzee calls for the Sheriff’s dean to release names of the deputies and for their arrest and criminal prosecution and body cameras to be executed throughout the force.

“I’m sad and mad at the same time,” Kizzee’s aunt Fletcher Fair said in a news conference. “This is not America. This is ridiculous. I don’t know what, what kind of society … We are human. I don’t give a damn what race you are. We are human beings.”

The District Attorney’s Office and Office of the Inspector General are assisting in the investigation.

Kizzee’s death comes amid public protests over the August police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after an officer knelt on his neck.

The dean said the deputies have yet to be interviewed and were not wearing body cameras, which are not set to be rolled out until the fall, according to CNN affiliate KABC. 

In response to the shooting, the activist group Black Lives Matter L.A. tweeted a call for protesters to gather in the area.