Los Angeles police shoot unarmed man who raised towel-covered hand

[Jazzy]

Los Angeles police shot and critically wounded an unarmed man after he raised his towel-wrapped hand at officers who thought he was brandishing a gun, a department spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The man, in his 30's, was walking on a busy street in the Los Feliz neighborhood and "appeared to be in distress" when police approached him around 6:30 p.m. local time on Friday, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Rosario Herrera said.

As officers exited their patrol car, the man extended a towel-wrapped hand at them, Herrera said.

Officers told the individual to drop the gun before firing, she said. The man, whose identity has not been released, was in critical condition on Saturday. The number of shots fired by police was still being investigated, Herrera said.

The man was later determined to have been unarmed and no weapon was found at the scene.

Source

Was this shooting justified? Why/Why not?

 

[Smiley]

The police officers thought he's hiding a gun under the towel. Maybe a bit paranoid reaction, but it could've turned out to be true, and now the police officers would be laying injured, or even dead.

This is one of those situations where you simply have to make a choice based on a lack of visible evidence. There was no way for the policemen to know whether the guy was armed or not. Since the later investigation revealed that he wasn't, I'd say he somehow injured his hand, wrapped it up with a towel to stop the bleeding (or at least to prevent the blood from dripping all over) and was rushing to the hospital.

He was probably extending his arm to show the policemen that he's injured, probably with an intention to ask them to take him to the hospital. It seems the policemen misunderstood his intentions.

Or maybe I got it all wrong.

 

[Jazzy]

I don't have enough information to form an opinion. Did he have the towel wrapped around his hand because it was injured? Did he not speak English enough to know what they were saying? Was there too much street noise for him to understand what they were saying? Did he extend his hand to the police because it was injured and he was showing them the problem? These are some questions I have no answers for.

 

[Smiley]

Well, I don't see why anyone would wrap a towel around their hand and walk through the city streets like that unless the hand is either injured or the person is hiding something under the towel. And, to make it even more puzzling, why extending your towel-wrapped arm toward the armed policemen unless you have a good reason to do so? :unsure2:

 

[Webster]

Whoever was dumb enough to do this certainly qualifies for a Darwin Award...