Protests held for man fatally shot while pointing e-cigarette

A second night of mostly peaceful protests over the fatal police shooting in Southern California of an unarmed black man said to be mentally ill climaxed on Wednesday as protesters confronted officers in riot gear who retreated as tensions rose.

Protesters earlier in the day shouted "murder" and demanded a federal investigation of Tuesday's shooting in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, which came just as racially charged anger over similar incidents in two other U.S. cities during the past two weeks had begun to subside.

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The Tuesday mid-afternoon shooting unfolded after two El Cajon police officers responded to several calls about a mentally unstable person walking in traffic, then confronted the man behind a restaurant.

One policeman opened fire with his service pistol and his partner simultaneously fired a Taser stun gun when the man pulled an object from his pocket and took aim at them in a "shooting stance," according to police. The item turned out to be an electronic cigarette device, police said late Wednesday.

Officer shoots and kills African-American man near San Diego

8 years ago

Duration 0:51

Police say victim was acting erratically and refused to comply

More than 200 people marched in the streets near the site at night, yelling "no justice, no peace, no racist police!"

Police in riot gear, some of them with dogs, faced off with protesters occasionally, bringing some tense moments, but mostly kept their distance.

There were no reports of any violence or arrests.

The fatal shooting happened less than two weeks after black men were shot and killed by police in Tulsa, Okla., and Charlotte, N.C., where violent protests broke out.

Mayor Bill Wells confirmed the victim's identity as Alfred Olango, a 38-year-old Ugandan immigrant with a U.S. felony record of convictions for drug and weapon offenses, according to federal court records.

Officer previously disciplined

Friends and activists said Olango was mentally ill and may have been suffering a seizure in the moments before his death.

Police said they obtained cellphone video of the shooting from a bystander, but authorities released only a still frame showing two officers pointing weapons at a man who was aiming an object at them.

They're cherry-picking part of the video.LawyerDanGilleon

In a separate video clip taken moments after the shooting and posted on social media, a woman who refers to herself as the victim's sister is heard crying in anguish, "Oh my God. You killed my brother. I just called for help and ... you killed him."

Wells told a news conference on Wednesday that he had seen the footage obtained by police. He described it as "certainly enlightening," adding, "I don't believe that this is going to be a tremendously complicated process for people to figure out what happened."

"I saw a man who was distraught, a man who was acting in ways that looked like he was in great pain, and I saw him get gunned down and killed, and it broke my heart. If it was my son I would be devastated," Wells said.

Olango's relatives demanded the full video be released, according to Dan Gilleon, a lawyer who says he is representing the family.

"They're cherry-picking part of the video," Gilleon said. "This is exactly what police have said is unfair when only portions of video are released against them."

Police have not named the officers involved, though Wells said both were 21-year veterans and one was Officer Richard Gonsalves.

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Gonsalves was demoted last year after allegations that he sexually harassed a lesbian colleague. The City Council had to defend the move to angry citizens who had called for him to be fired.

Wells said all 120 officers on El Cajon's police force receive training from San Diego County's Psychiatric Emergency Response Teams, or PERT, program, though no PERT-assigned officer was available for dispatch to Tuesday's call.

The FBI and the district attorney also are investigating the shooting in the city of 100,000 people, which is about 25 kilometres northeast of San Diego.

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