L.A. cops shoot homeless man dead on video.

[Vladimir Putin]

Los Angeles Times, Sunday, March 1, 2015, 10:55pm EST

DEADLY LAPD SHOOTING OF HOMELESS MAN IS CAUGHT ON VIDEO

By GALE HOLLAND and JACK DOLAN, Los Angeles Times

In a dramatic confrontation caught on video, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in the heart of downtown's bustling skid row Sunday.

A video of the incident posted on Facebook (contains foul language) shows a group of officers getting into a scuffle with a man standing on a sidewalk littered with tents and other debris.

During the struggle, one officer drops his nightstick, which is picked up by a woman on the street. Two officers handcuff the woman.

The man continues to scuffle with four of the officers, even after he's wrestled to the ground. What appears to be one of the officers is heard saying "Drop the gun. Drop the gun."

Then, at least one of the officers opens fire on the man, who remained on the ground with at least two officers near him.

Five gunshots are heard on the recording.

Police have not identified the dead man or said how many officers were involved, or how many shots were fired. The man was declared dead at a hospital shortly after the shooting, which occurred about noon, according to police spokesman Sgt. Barry Montgomery.

The officers had responded to a robbery call in the 500 block of San Pedro Street, Montgomery said. He added that at one point during the struggle a Taser had been deployed, but investigators did not know if it was used on the man who was subsequently shot.

No officers were injured during the altercation, Montgomery said.

Witnesses at the scene identified the victim by his street name, “Africa”, and gave conflicting accounts of what they saw.

Dennis Horne, 29, said Africa had been fighting with someone else in his tent when police arrived.

When Africa refused to comply with a police order to come out of the tent, officers used the Taser on him and dragged him out, Horne said. The officers tackled Africa to the ground, where he continued to fight, which led to the fatal shooting, according to Horne.

“It's sad ,” Horne said. “There's no justification to take somebody's life.”

Another witness, Lonnie Franklin, 53, said five to six officers pulled up in three to four cars as Africa was lying face down on the sidewalk. The officers approached with guns drawn yelling, ”Down, down”, according to Franklin.

When Africa got up and started fighting, the officers “went straight to lethal force,” Franklin said.

But Jose Gil, 38 , said he saw the man swinging at the police and then heard one of the officers say, “Gun, gun, he's got my gun!” before police fired multiple shots.

Another witness, who asked not to be identified, said the man punched and kicked the officers and reached for one of their service weapons before the officers fired at least seven times.

An area resident, who identified himself as Booker T. Washington, said police had come by repeatedly to ask Africa to take down his tent. People are allowed to sleep on the streets from 9 p.m to 6 a.m., but they are supposed to remove their tents in the daytime under a court agreement.

“This man got shot over a tent,” Washington said.

Ina Murphy, who lives in an apartment nearby, said Africa had arrived in the area about four or five months ago. He told her he had recently been released after spending 10 years in a mental facility, Murphy said.

Police Commission President Steve Soboroff first saw the video of the shooting via social media. He was watching it again when reached by a Times reporter Sunday evening, trying to hear what exactly the officers said to the man.

"My heart just started pounding just watching it," Soboroff said. "I feel the adrenaline. These situations are just so horrific."

Soboroff said a key issue would be whether the man did in fact try to grab the officer's gun, as some witnesses have told reporters. Otherwise, he said, it's unclear what might have prompted the use of deadly force.

"To me, that would be the only explanation that something would happen that quickly," Soboroff said. "It escalated. It escalated right in front of our eyes."

He stressed that the LAPD, its independent inspector general and the district attorney's office would all investigate the shooting "very, very carefully."

"Of course I would encourage people not to rush to judgment. It's not fair to anybody. It's not fair to the family of the victim or the victim or the officers," he said. "We'll find out what happened."

LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery said Sunday evening that investigators were in the process of interviewing "loads of people" who were in the area at the time of the shooting. He said there would potentially be more video recordings of the incident, noting that he could see two surveillance cameras mounted on buildings at the scene.

It was still unclear how many officers fired their weapons or what was said to the man before he was shot, Montgomery said.

Montgomery said the video of the events leading up to the shooting appears to back the initial report that a Taser was used. He said the "click-click-click" sound that accompanies the use of the device can be heard on the recording.

According to a Times data analysis, there have been 12 fatal officer-involved shootings in downtown Los Angeles since 2000. There were none in 2014 and one in 2015 before Sunday's violence.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Kate Mather and Armand Emandjomeh contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2015 Los Angeles Times. All rights reserved.

[BLKGSXR]

So how does this make the "black" officer a sellout? Oh because its no longer a white on black crime! Surprise motherfuckers they threw a twist on the controversy!

[Vladimir Putin]

(Early this evening, the French Consulate in L.A. reported that the dead homeless guy identified as Charley Saturmin Robinet stole the identity of another person by that name. The consulate did not know what his real name was.)

Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 5:59pm EST

MAN SHOT DEAD BY LAPD ON SKID ROW WAS CONVICTED BANK ROBBER

By RICHARD WINTON and KATE MATHER, Los Angeles Times

The 39-year-old man shot dead by Los Angeles police officers on skid row Sunday was convicted 15 years ago of an armed robbery at a Thousand Oaks bank and sent to federal prison, according to records and law enforcement sources.

Two sources familiar with the investigation identified the homeless man as Charley Saturmin Robinet. Thus far, the coroner's office has said only that he is a 39-year-old man.

In 2000, Robinet, described as a French national, was accused with others of robbing a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Ventura County.

According to federal court documents, he and an accomplice were armed, respectively, with a handgun and a rifle. They entered the bank from the rear and ordered everyone to the floor. Robinet jumped over the counter and demanded money from a teller, then dragged the teller to the vault area. When the teller did not have the key to access the vault, Robinet pistol-whipped and kicked him, authorities said at the time.

Court records show the teller sustained bruises, rug burns and a cut on his head requiring stitches. Robinet then forced the bank manager to open two vaults at gunpoint before placing cash in a bag. The pair and a getaway driver fled with authorities in high-speed pursuit.

Their SUV collided with a number of other vehicles before a spike strip placed across the roadway blew out its tires, enabling authorities to apprehend the trio. Robinet was captured after a foot pursuit along a Ventura beach promenade.

He was carrying $33,500, according to prosecutors.

During his initial interviews with investigators, Robinet said he robbed the bank to cover the cost of acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, authorities said.

Federal records show he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Robinet was released from a federal facility in May 2014, according to online federal prison records.

Federal court documents filed when Robinet was imprisoned in 2000 said he suffered from unspecified mental health issues.

In July 2003, while at the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota, a psychiatrist determined he suffered from a “mental disease or defect for which he requires treatment” in a psychiatric hospital.

But Robinet refused to be transferred to an in-patient mental health unit at the prison, which specializes in medical or mental health care. So in January 2005, federal prosecutors petitioned the court to order that he be hospitalized. The records do not reveal Robinet's specific condition. The petition was withdrawn after Robinet agreed to hospitalization, records show.

The LAPD has said Sunday's shooting occurred after officers responded to a 911 call about a robbery. The department said the man fought the officers and was shot after grabbing a probationary officer's holstered pistol.

On Monday, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said footage from body cameras worn by an officer and a sergeant involved in the shooting gave investigators a “unique perspective” of the incident. But, citing the ongoing investigation, he said the footage couldn't yet be released publicly.

The chief declined to comment on what exactly the body camera recordings showed.

“At the end of the investigation into this officer-involved shooting ... we will release the complete investigation through the inspector general’s office,” Beck said. “If there is a criminal proceeding in this or if there’s a civil proceeding in this, we will make all evidence available through those proceedings.”

The sources said the body camera footage supported events depicted in the civilian-captured video of Sunday's shooting, which drew millions of views after it was posted on Facebook. An enhanced version of that video reviewed by the Los Angeles Times showed the man's arm reach toward an officer's waistband.

Law enforcement sources said one of the body camera recordings captured the start of the incident, when officers initially approached the man's tent. One source said the man is seen running inside the tent, at which point the officers tell him to show them his hands and come out of the tent.

At one point, one of the sources said, the man began running toward the officers, flailing his arms. He can also be seen in the video spinning around, the source said.

One source said an officer is heard on the body camera video shouting, "He's got my gun," multiple times. The footage then shows the officers pulling away from the man as though his actions posed a threat, the sources said.

Copyright © 2015 Los Angeles Times. All rights reserved.



(Ventura County Sheriff's Office) The man formerly identified as Charley Saturmin Robinet, seen in a 2000 booking photo.

Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, June 7, 2000

ROBBER WON'T BE STEALING THE SHOW ANY TIME SOON

By STEVE CHAWKINS, Los Angelse Times Staff Writer

Maybe a wannabe actor from Hollywood should have settled for a nice part in community theater--perhaps a production of "Take the Money and Run" at the local high school.

Instead, Charley Saturmin Robinet, a French citizen who came to the U.S. to make his mark in show biz, will play a supporting role in prison for the robbery of a Thousand Oaks bank.

His inner motivation?

Money for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, according to a tape-recorded statement he gave to authorities after his arrest.

"I've never had a case like this one," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Cheryl Murphy, who prosecuted the star-crossed robber.

Robinet, 24, was found guilty Monday of conspiracy, armed bank robbery and brandishing a firearm in the holdup of the Wells Fargo branch at 3695 Thousand Oaks Blvd. on Feb. 23. He faces up to 37 years in prison.

Robinet, who is to be sentenced in August, pistol-whipped a bank employee. He and two accomplices led police on a high-speed pursuit over rain-slicked highways to Ventura. When he was captured after a foot chase along the beach-side promenade, he was carrying $33,500.

A spokesman for the respected Beverly Hills Playhouse said he had not heard of Robinet. He wouldn't disclose the cost of classes, saying only that they are not the most expensive in town.

Copyright © 2000 Los Angeles Times. All rights reserved. A Times Mirror Paper.

[Ben in LA]

So he robbed a bank 15 years ago. What does that have to do with the situation at hand?

I knew the media would dig deep to assassinate the dead's character...

[Tapatio]

If you google the witness Jose Gil, you'll find someone with the exact same name is a photographer who has taken a lot of pics of the LAPD over the years.

And wtf is up with Beck's statement today re: a hand on the gun and a malfunctioning weapon?

BLKGSXR- I am missing the "sellout" comment- was it in the original post and I didn't see it, in a deleted comment, or in another conversation? Regardless, I think I get your point. To assume that race matters, or should matter, to people trying to do a specific job is pretty racist- and demeaning to the integrity of the person in question.

[Vladimir Putin]

BLKGSXR- I am missing the "sellout" comment- was it in the original post and I didn't see it, in a deleted comment, or in another conversation? Regardless, I think I get your point. To assume that race matters, or should matter, to people trying to do a specific job is pretty racist- and demeaning to the integrity of the person in question.

Someone in the video (maybe the cameraman) called the black cop in the video a "sellout" because he was one of the cops that shot the homeless man.

The name of the cameraman is Anthony Blackburn. He posted that video on his Facebook page.

[fred41]

And wtf is up with Beck's statement today re: a hand on the gun and a malfunctioning weapon?

Wasn't sure what you meant, so I read one of the news articles. I believe you are referring to what they call a level 3 'malfunction'....which would be the round not fully ejected and stuck (there's a pic of this in one of the photos). The slide is back, the top restraining strap is pulled forward...this they mention, is consistent with someone trying to pull the gun out of the officer's holster.
...I 'think' this is what you mean...I only went by a written article, I didn't hear any live statements .

[Tapatio]

Thanks to both of you, VP and Fred-

I haven't had time to catch up on this and only get snippets, headlines, and overheard comments.

[Ben in LA]

I guess I struck a nerve...

[gaysian71]

Uhhhh, that poor homeless man. If only he had watched this edgamacational video before that incident.