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Video Footage Supports Police Officer’s Claim He Didn’t Execute LA Teen

Reuters

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Grace Carr Reporter
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A surveillance video corroborates an off-duty police officer’s account that he was being robbed when he killed a 15-year-old boy and wounded another teen Friday night.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Corina said the video shows three teens, aged 14 or 15, following the officer Friday night after he got off a train in suburban Arcadia. The video has not been released to the public since the investigation is ongoing.

Corina reported that the officer was wearing headphones and listening to music when the teens came up behind him and hit him in the head at least three times.

The video allegedly shows Darius Smith, 15, pointing a BB gun at the officer’s face and demanding money. The officer pulled out his service weapon and fired seven times at Smith and one of the other boys.

Smith was shot twice in the chest and twice in the butt. He ran from the scene and collapsed roughly two blocks away. He died several hours later.

The other boy fell to the ground after being shot and the officer held him at gunpoint until police arrived, according to Corina. The third teen fled the scene and was arrested several hours later.

The Smith’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said at a protest Monday that the teen was “executed” as the officer stood over him.

“He was not in the midst of a robbery. He was shot twice in the legs first. He fell and his shooter got over him and shot him three times in the chest,” Merritt said, according to the Associated Press.

Corina refuted the lawyer’s claim that the boy was executed as a “complete fabrication.”

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Grace Carr