Two Los Angeles police officers have shot an unarmed man in the head and put him in handcuffs after he flagged them down for help.
An eyewitness video captured after the man was shot on Friday shows him lying on the ground with his head severely bleeding. The two officers then proceed to turn him over and handcuff his motionless body.
The incident took place in a residential area, where the victim, in his thirties, asked the patrolling officers to stop and help him with something without knowing that they will shoot him in the head within moments.
“I didn’t see a weapon, he didn’t seem to [be] hurting anyone, but I don’t know, I only heard the shots and saw he was shot in the head,” a witness said.
The man, whose identity is yet to be released, was then taken to a nearby hospital where he remained in critical condition.
The two officers suspected the man of carrying a concealed gun and decided to shoot him when he refused to drop his alleged weapon.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson Andrew Smith stated on Sunday that they were not able to recover any guns belonging to the victim from the scene and the man was unarmed when he was shot.
He justified handcuffing the victim and said “we always do that, that’s the policy… to handcuff someone in a situation like that.”
LAPD became notorious for unusual shooting of suspects a few months ago when its officers shot mentally-ill black suspect, Ezell Ford, dead while they had him in full custody and he was posing no immediate threats.
Ford’s murder sparked nationwide protests in the United States. LAPD, however, cleared the officers and said the shooting was justified.
