A Huntington Beach police officer shot a man in front of a 7-Eleven earlier this morning in an incident captured on cellphone video. The trouble began outside the convenience store on 6012 Edinger Avenue. “About 9:30 a.m., an officer made contact with a subject at a 7-Eleven,” Huntington Beach Police spokesperson Angela Bennett tells the Weekly. “An altercation ensued and an officer-involved shooting occurred.”
Huntington Beach police say the unnamed man was transferred to a local hospital and has died from his injuries.
A bystander captured footage of the incident showing the cop struggling to subdue the young man on the ground of the parking lot just before the officer-involved shooting happened. At one point during the altercation, he appears to pull an object from the policeman’s belt and gets up off the pavement. The officer draws his gun and backs away.
Another 17-second video shared on Twitter by the witness shows a burst of six gun shots that left the man staggering. He didn’t appear to raise the unknown object or lunge at the cop in any menacing manner. Three seconds pass before a final shot is fired. “Suspect’s down,” the officer radioed in shortly after.
Both clips are edited together in this YouTube video. Warning: the footage is graphic.
After the gunfire ends, the man slumps against the front entrance of the 7-Eleven.
The officer-involved shooting happened across the street from Marina High School, which was put on lock down for an hour. The Los Angeles Times reports that the incident is the seventh officer-involved shooting by the department this year; one more than the total the Weekly tallied for Huntington Beach between 2006 and 2016 for its Blood Orange special report.
Unlike all other local enforcement agencies, Huntington Beach police shootings are investigated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) instead of the Orange County District Attorney’s team. OCSD homicide unit investigators are already on scene.
Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!