Police in Los Angeles County gunned down a man who was preparing to swing a crowbar at them in the parking lot of afast food restaurant.
The entire heart-stopping shooting – 10 shots in all – was captured on video by two teens with a cell phone camera, who watched as the man walked out of the Carl’s Jr. about 9.30am Tuesday and apparently refused officers’ commands to surrender.
The dead man’s name is unknown and the names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released.
Police approach and shoot him in the face with a Taser stun gun.
The man pulls the electric probes and wires out, takes a step then turns toward one of the officersand swings the metal bar.
That’s when one officer, holding a pistol in one hand and the leash of a police dog in the other, opens fire, shooting five times.
The man stumbles backwards and spins. He is still on his feet when a second officer fires five more times.
He was taken to the hospital, where he died.
The cameramen, who react with shock at what they see, apparently set up behind a chain-link fence to film the man’s encounter with officers after they saw him causing a disturbance in the restaurant.
Before the video surfaced, police claimed the man had swung the pipe at officers. However, the footage does not show he swung.
Rather, it appears the man gripped the pipe like a baseball bat and was preparing to swing.
The target of his fury, the officer with the Taser, appearing to be fumbling in his pocket for a cartridge to reload the stun gun.
He backed up quickly to avoid the man’s swing.
