amphotora/iStockBy MATT GUTMAN and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — The family of a Black man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies is calling for the officers involved to be identified and prosecuted, as a second night of protests got underway Tuesday.
The man, identified by family as Dijon Kizzee, 29, was pursued Monday afternoon for riding a bicycle in violation of vehicle laws, authorities said. Following an altercation with the two officers, he allegedly dropped a gun and was shot several times, officials said.
What appears to sound like at least 15 rounds can be heard fired off-screen in doorbell camera footage obtained by ABC News.
During a press briefing Tuesday, activist Najee Ali, a spokesperson for Ben Crump, the family’s lawyer, said that Kizzee was shot while unarmed and running away.
Several eyewitnesses of the incident in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Westmont told ABC News Tuesday that Kizzee was unarmed and backing away at the time of the shooting.
One, who wanted to be called by only his last name, said he and his girlfriend were feet away from the shooting. Martin, 23, said they saw Kizzee drop what appeared to be a bundle of clothing and heard a clattering “like a phone falling on the ground” seconds before the officers opened fire. He said they didn’t hear any orders from the officers prior to the shooting.
Tim Ingram, 52, who lives across the street from the site of the incident, told ABC News that Kizzee had his hands up when he was shot, and that the officers continued to shoot after he was down.
In an update Tuesday night that did not name the suspect, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that two deputies observed a man commit a vehicle code violation while riding a bicycle. The man allegedly ran from the scene and punched one of the deputies in the face once.
“After he punched the deputy, he dropped a jacket at which time a black semi-automatic handgun fell to the ground,” the statement said. “The suspect made a motion toward the firearm, it was at that time a deputy-involved shooting occurred.”
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
In describing the incident late Monday, Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told reporters that the suspect was struck several times, with both officers firing their weapons.
Deputies recovered the handgun that the man had been carrying, he said.
The deputies have been removed from the field during the investigation, officials said Tuesday.
Kizzee’s family is demanding the identification and arrest of the officers who shot Kizzee, Ali said. They also are calling for the sheriff’s department to immediately implement body cameras. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is set to start deploying body cameras in the fall.
A second night of protests over Kizzee’s death was planned for Tuesday evening, as the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police organized a march outside the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station. According to organizers, Kizzee’s family participated. Protesters were demanding that the officers be identified and arrested for murder.
At the press briefing earlier Tuesday, Fletcher Fair, Kizzee’s aunt, spoke out in anger over violence against Black people.
“I think this is so dirty of any department — sheriff’s department or any department to kill people. They don’t kill any other race but us and this don’t make any sense,” Fair said. “Right now, I’m sad and I’m mad at the same time. Why us? … We’re tired. We are absolutely tired.”
In a high-profile deputy-involved shooting back in June, 18-year-old Andres Guardado was shot and killed after two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies said they saw him wielding a gun in front of a business and led them on a foot chase. The Los Angeles County medical examiner confirmed that he was shot five times in the back.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — Two children are missing after an overnight flash flood swept their mother’s car off the road outside Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday.
Up to 7 inches of rain fell in some parts of the state overnight on Monday, leading to supercharged flooding.
First responders were initially able to rescue the mother and one of the children, but fast-moving water capsized the recovery boat and the child slipped away. Both children remain missing.
“They got into the water and they were able to rescue the child, a child and the mother,” said Smithfield Fire Chief John Blanton. “The water was so turbulent that the boat capsized. And they lost the child. They were able to regain the mother.”
According to Blanton, a total of four swiftwater rescue boats capsized in the extreme current. Rescuers have since found the mother’s car, but no sign of the two children. Rescue efforts have expanded and searchers are now using a helicopter to look for the missing kids from above.
Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell announced Tuesday evening that the search for the children has been suspended for the night and will continue as a search and rescue mission at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to ABC affiliate, WTVD-TV.
Not far from the scene of the missing children, an elderly couple was rescued after their car overturned on a rain-slicked I-95.
Witnesses who saw the accident sprang into action and helped them. Neither appeared to be seriously injured.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office By LUKE BARR and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
(SANTA CLARA, Calif.) — Authorities in California charged an alleged member of the far-right extremist “boogaloo movement” Tuesday with threatening a public official after investigators say he sent threatening letters to a county health officer.
The Santa Clara Sheriff’s office said it had been investigating letters sent over the last several months to Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health officer, that used “profane and threatening language” against her, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The 24 letters allegedly had indicia of the “boogaloo movement,” according to the police.
Investigators discovered a fingerprint on one of the letters and matched it with Alan Viarengo, 55, of Gilroy, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers set up surveillance of Viarengo and saw him drop off a letter at a post office mailbox in Watsonville, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators worked with the United States Postal Service and intercepted the letter, which was allegedly addressed to Cody and contained a threatening message, officials said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Viarengo’s home and arrested him on Aug. 27 after finding a cache of weapons, said the sheriff’s office.
“After conducting a search of Viarengo’s residence, detectives located 138 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and explosive materials,” the sheriff’s office said in its news release.
Investigators also said Viarengo’s fingerprint was found on a threatening letter sent to the widow of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who was killed in the line of duty on June 6 by an alleged boogaloo follower.
“The letter contained language mocking the death of Sgt. Gutzwiller and also wishing death upon more law enforcement officers,” the sheriff’s office said.
Attorney information for Viarengo, who was charged with stalking and threatening a public official, was not immediately available.
The boogaloo movement, whose name is coined from a term used by extremists to signify a civil war, is known for its anti-government, anti-police and pro-gun beliefs. The group has been linked to several attacks and attempted attacks against police and government officials.
The movement has also allegedly infiltrated Black Lives Matter protests to incite violence, according to investigators.
“We’re seeing actions from boogaloo followers where they’re targeting police and other government officials and serve as real concerns for law enforcement,” said former Department of Homeland Security acting undersecretary and ABC News contributor John Cohen. “Notwithstanding what the administration puts out each and every day, the threat facing the United States comes not only from far left-wing extremists but from those on the far right, including those who seek to incite a second Civil War.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Monica Roberts, a 58-year-old transgender activist from Houston, travels around the country speaking at colleges and consulting with communities on how to better serve the transgender population. But no matter where she goes, her first mission is to call home to her elderly mother, who constantly fears that her daughter might be targeted in a hate crime.
With more than two dozen unsolved murders of transgender people so far in 2020, Roberts said her mother has good reason to be concerned.
Like many transgender women of color, Roberts said she feels more vulnerable than ever given the tumultuous political climate, but she found reason to celebrate this month when the Los Angeles Police Department captured a group of violent assailants who allegedly robbed and attacked three transgender women on Hollywood Boulevard as onlookers stood by.
At least 26 transgender or gender nonconforming people have been killed in the U.S. so far in 2020, with transgender women of color making up the bulk of those victims, according to data provided by the Human Rights Campaign.
The group reported 25 killings in 2019 and 29 in 2018, the most it had ever recorded in a year. There is no official track of the amount of non-fatal anti-transgender assaults.
Members of the transgender community praised the LAPD for prioritizing the attack as a hate crime and apprehending the suspects within just three days. Many LGBTQ advocates said other cities and municipalities could learn a lot from Los Angeles and cities like it where lawmakers have vowed to protect members of marginalized communities, especially those who identify as LGBTQ.
“My heart broke when I saw the story out of Los Angeles, where you had people gleefully egging on the attackers while videotaping,” Roberts, who travels often through her advocacy work and as a board member of the Dallas-based Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, told ABC News. “The transphobia that is going on in the black trans communities needs to stop and it needs to be called out immediately.”
Roberts said she would like to see more action and activism from politicians.
“Kamala Harris cannot be the only voice calling it out. I need the Congressional Black Caucus calling it out. I need the NAACP calling it out. I need individual legislators in these areas, and council members calling it out,” she added.
Attacked as onlookers joked and filmed
Social media users shared a video of the violent Aug. 17 attack in Los Angeles, showing a man yelling transphobic slurs at the women, allegedly robbing them and attacking one woman with a bottle, according to police.
Bystanders could be seen laughing and joking about the attack while filming it. The department described the primary suspect as a homeless person from the Hollywood area who outreach officers said they recognized from previous encounters.
The department said the city’s deep ties with the LGBTQ community helped them to arrest the suspects, one of whom was initially charged with robbery with a hate crime enhancement and another, who was charged with extortion.
A third suspect is wanted for assault with a deadly weapon, according to police.
The suspects have since been released and it was unclear if they had retained attorneys as of Monday morning. ABC News is not naming the suspects because they have not been formally charged.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that it had not filed charges against suspects and although the crime had been captured on video, it sent the case back to the LAPD for further investigation.
“Our office has asked for further investigation. No charges have been filed at this time,” the office said in a statement last week. “Once the investigation is complete, the case will be reviewed for filing consideration.”
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who helped push for a full investigation into the incident, said the attack felt like “a sucker punch to all of us who believe in civilized behavior and humane treatment of one another.”
“The transgender community, especially women of color, are so often marginalized, assaulted, and even murdered. It is an epidemic that can be seen across the country,” O’Farrell said. “These women were in great distress and clearly becoming more injured as this attack carried through in those harrowing several minutes that we’ve seen on video.”
“So, it’s really important that we make arrests like this and I just want to send a signal to anyone who was in that crowd cheering … that is not behavior that is becoming of a resident of the City of Angels and that is the kind of behavior that will not be tolerated,” he added.
Long history of progressive, gender-inclusive policies
LAPD officials told ABC News that the office of Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala, the department’s LGBTQ Outreach Coordinator, was instrumental in helping capture the suspects.
Girmala was also a big part of the department’s 2017 Safe Place initiative, which declares participating brick-and-mortar establishments a safe haven for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Modeled after a Seattle program that encourages engagement between police, local business owners and the LGBTQ community, the initiative allows businesses to post signs indicating that they are a “safe place” for anyone who might be seeking refuge from a hate crime or incident.
“Justice for all should mean just that. There should be no exception to that rule and there should be no marginalization to that rule,” Girmala told reporters earlier this month when announcing the arrests. “But we can’t arrive at justice unless we have the community working in partnership with us. And not just lip service to say this is community policing and not just to say that we are working together, but where we see the manifestation of those partnerships in a day like today.”
She highlighted the mayor’s Transgender Advisory Council and LAPD LGBTQ Working Group, an initiative launched in 2010 to create more culturally sensitive policies for the city’s officers, when discussing some infrastructures that have helped the department crackdown on anti-transgender crime over the years.
Roberts — who has been tracking pro-LGBTQ legislation for more than two decades and documenting transgender violence for her blog, Transgrio — pointed to California as one of the more progressive states in the country when it comes to protecting transgender women.
“They did the right thing by opening an investigation. Instead of trying to sweep it under the rug or ignoring it, like many police departments do, they went after these folks,” Roberts said. “It makes me angry because too many leaders are silent about this wave of violence that is being perpetrated by Black cis-gendered men in this community, aimed at predominantly Black trans women.”
Danni Newbury — an LGBTQ rights advocate and coordinator of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs at Union County, New Jersey — agreed that California law makes it much easier to prosecute anti-transgender crimes. The state is one of few in the country that protects transgender people under local hate crime laws.
Protecting LGBTQ’s most vulnerable
Many state hate crimes laws, including those in Texas, cover sexual orientation, but not gender identity, essentially leaving out people who identify as transgender or non-binary.
Newbury, who oversees New Jersey’s first county office of LGBTQ services, said her home state has been working to make sure that law enforcement agencies have deep ties with the LGBTQ community, which makes it much easier when crimes inevitably happen. She said her office has been working with authorities to come up with plans on how to better engage and serve with transgender victims.
“We want to make sure that we have allies in positions of influence who really care about helping these vulnerable communities,” Newbury said. “The first part is learning where we’ve gotten it wrong from the community and the second part is informing our organizations, our police academy, and our officers and police chiefs on how to get it right. Because we know, anecdotally, that it needs attention.”
In New Jersey, advocates have been focusing on trans-inclusion and visibility in an effort to spread awareness and combat anti-transgender sentiments. For example, the Office of LGBTQ Affairs hosted a drag queen story hour as a way to bring the divide between parents in the wake controversy of school bathroom bills.
“It was simply a way to educate families that were already inclusive and to show others that there’s no danger in something like Drag Queen Story Hour. It’s about celebrating art and individuality,” Newbury, who identifies as lesbian, said. “So a lot of our advocacy comes in the form of inclusive programming. It allows the community to participate at the level that they’re comfortable and the more we move people toward inclusion and acceptance, the closer we are to progress.”
Like California, New Jersey recently banned the so-called trans panic defense, the argument that a violent act was caused by the revelation of a victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.
California became the first state to ban the defense in 2014 and a hand full of other states followed suit.
“That’s a problem because you’re playing on hatred of trans folks as a defense in order to reduce the punishments for the people who perpetrate the crimes,” Roberts said. “In other words you’re blaming the victim for their murder. And because you have this perception out there that trans folks are going around deceiving people, a notion pushed by media and in Hollywood, the defense works time and time again.”
(NEW YORK) — In the shadow of Denver’s old airport tower, the neighborhood known as Stapleton is a place with big parks and modern homes. But residents recently decided the neighborhood had an outdated name.
“Stapleton was named after the airport but the airport was named after Benjamin Stapleton, who was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan,” Kimberly Brewer, an activist with the group Rename Stapleton For All, told ABC News.
Brewer helped lead the long fight to rename Stapleton. For decades, that rebranding was rejected by voters. But in June, Brewer says something finally changed.
“I think we as a nation are beginning to grapple with the reality of our history, and what is in a name,” she said.
Along with nationwide protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, there’s also been a new reckoning for names and symbols that conjure racism in America’s past. In Colorado, a state with great natural beauty, the state map is still dotted with what some say are ugly slurs — places like Negro Mesa, Redskin Mountain and Squaw Mountain.
Near the town of Buena Vista, about two hours southeast of Denver, there lies a popular off-roading area called Chinaman Gulch. Local historian Suzy Kelly told ABC News that in the 1800s, a Chinese man lived in the area, where he worked cutting wooden ties for the expanding railroad lines.
“They named it Chinaman Gulch because he lived there,” Kelly explained. “It wasn’t an insult. It wasn’t done maliciously.”
She says most locals just don’t see the need to change a name that’s been around for 130 years.
“I think they’re making a big thing out of nothing, to tell you the truth,” said Kelly.
But today, Chinaman Gulch is on a list of controversial names being reviewed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also just created his own renaming commission.
“The people in power are the ones who give the names to different places and that reflects the values of these mythical ideas of American individualism, this rugged sort of approach to the west, this dominance superiority,” Nicki Gonzales, a history professor at Regis University in Denver who also serves on the state’s renaming commission, told ABC News.
“The commission is tasked with examining some of the place names in Colorado that have been highly problematic,” Gonzales said. “For once, we’ll have these conversations at the highest level of government in Colorado.”
Sky Roosevelt-Morris and Tink Tinker are with the activist group American Indian Movement. They, too, are challenging white America to rethink the stories about people who have long been celebrated as pioneers and explorers — people like Kit Carson.
“We like to call them invaders — colonizers — because that’s exactly what their mission here was: to colonize and commit genocide against indigenous peoples,” Roosevelt-Morris said.
In June, the city of Denver removed a statue of Kit Carson located downtown before protestors could tear it down themselves.
“Carson was a premiere Indian killer. [He] accounted for a number of massacres between Colorado and California,” Tinker said.
Carson’s name is on streets and schools. The Fort Carson Army base in Colorado Springs is named after him. And it’s the name of a small town on Colorado’s eastern plains. Some Kit Carson residents say removing his name from the town would be a step too far.
“History is history. It’s not there for us to like. It’s not there for us to love. It’s for us to learn from,” said resident Kimberly Brown. “And i feel erasing history, good or bad, is not OK.”
Not far down the road is the town of Chivington, another place with a troubled namesake.
In 1864, U.S. Army Col. John Chivington led soldiers in a massacre at nearby Sand Creek, slaughtering more than 200 Native Americans, most of them women and children.
It is a wound that Native Americans say hasn’t healed, which is why they say a high school mascot in Lamar — just 40 miles to the south — is a painful insult. In Lamar, the local high school team is known as the “Savages.”
“We’re not anybody’s mascot, we are our own sovereign nations. Our own peoples,” said Tinker.
Locals say that what they call “Savage Nation” comes from a long history in the community, and that it’s meant to unite, not divide.
“In our school, everybody knows if we get called a savage, it’s not offensive in any way. It’s prideful,” said one Lamar High School student.
Acacia Truitt graduated from Lamar High School. She started a petition to keep the “Savage” name.
“We’re not using it as a derogative term,” Truitt said. “I think that people, when they look from the outside … they don’t see that it’s something that we take a lot of pride in.”
But not everyone agrees. Nereida Aguirre graduated from Lamar High School in 2012. She says she had no problem with the Savage mascot until she moved away to college.
“I mentioned the name of my mascot, and a bunch of the kids kind of looked at me and they’re like, ‘Are you serious? You’re not joking?’ I’m like, ‘I’m serious, that’s it,’ and they’re like, ‘that’s actually really offensive,’” Aguirre said.
She’s now back in Lamar and has joined a group organized by alumni called Lamar Proud, which is working to bury the Savage name.
“I feel that we’re in a moment in history and time where the choices we make are kind of influenced by the way we’re seen later on, by future generations,” Aguirre said. “There’s other good things about that school. So focus on those things, take pride in those. We’ll change the mascot.”
Even if that change happens, some activists like Roosevelt-Morris say the real issue goes far deeper.
“Maybe if we are willing to address racist mascots and racist holidays and racist streets and racist statues, then maybe we can start to get to the heart of the issue, which is that this land is stolen. That this country is built on the genocide of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of black relatives,” Roosevelt-Morris said.
Back in Stapleton, they’re now covering up the old signs and making way for a new name: Central Park.
“These names have the potential to evoke a very painful past and exclusive past, and that affects the self-esteem of young people. I think there’s room enough for everybody’s history,” said Gonzales. “I really do think something has shifted. And with the spark of George Floyd’s murder, maybe it’s a point of no return.”
amphotora/iStockBy MATT GUTMAN and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
