Police body camera footage has now been released showing a Los Angeles officer fatally shooting a teenager who was holding a rifle.
Luis Herrera, 19, was shot dead after repeatedly calling the police for help, claiming his drunken father was beating his mother and him.
When they approached the residence, Herrera, dressed in black, came out the front door holding “what appeared to be a black handgun,” the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
In the newly released body camera video, an officer can be heard yelling at Herrera, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Leave it!”.
But Herrera refuses to comply with the officer’s orders to drop the rifle, prompting the cops to take up position in the corner.
“Herrera shouldered the rifle and pointed it at the officers, resulting in the officer being shot,” the release said.
Herrera was then hit by a volley of gunfire and fell, but continued to hold the rifle as he writhed on the ground in the front yard as his parents watched from the house.
A subsequent investigation revealed there was no evidence of domestic violence between Herrera’s parents, contrary to what the 19-year-old had said in phone calls.
Otherwise the LAPD’s Force Investigation Division is investigating the fatal shooting.