Protests erupt in South LA over police shooting of black teen
Angry protesters have taken to the streets of a South Los Angeles neighborhood to condemn the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old black man by police.
It was the second night of protests since Carnell Snell Jr. was shot and killed following a traffic stop on Saturday afternoon.
The crowd blocked traffic at 108th Street and Western Avenue. The demonstration turned chaotic with some protesters harassing news reporters and vandalizing local businesses.
The demonstrators chanted slogans against police brutality and carried signs, including one that read, “Jail killer cops!”
The night began with a peaceful prayer vigil for Snell, but the protest grew more intense. LAPD officers in riot gear swarmed to disperse the crowd, telling dozens of protesters to leave the area or face arrest. By 11 p.m., police had arrested four people for failing to disperse, an LAPD official said.
"There are other ways to restrain these young black men instead of just gunning them down," Trina Collins, a protester, told The Los Angeles Times. "There’s other resources they can use. They don’t have to kill them in cold blood like that."
Police said Snell bailed out of a car being pursued by LAPD officers who suspected it might have been stolen. The teen ran away on foot and police chased him to the back of a house, where he was shot. Police found a gun at the scene.
It was the latest police shooting of an African-American man to spark protests against law enforcement in the US.
The deaths of other black people in recent weeks have also angered communities in El Cajon, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Experts from the United Nations warned in a report last week that African Americans in the US were facing a "human rights crisis."
Police killings of African Americans "and the trauma they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynchings," said the report, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council last Monday.
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