It all started when someone called 911 reporting three teens were tagging the wall of a nearby building with graffiti on August 9, 2016.
Police respond to the scene and spot two boys.
One starts running.
A foot chase ensues with Los Angeles police officer Eden Medina chasing 14-year-old Jesse Romero down E. Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
As Medina and another officer approach a corner, a gunshot can be heard.
Body cam footage shows Medina forward, turning the corner onto Breed Street then shooting Romero from the back, killing him.
“Get down!” one cop screams.
“Let me see your fucking hands!”
As officers approach, there’s only one problem: Romero had already disarmed by tossing his gun over a fence before Medina shot him.
The video shows a revolver on the other side of a wrought-iron fence.
“What happened is was when he threw it over the fence . . . when it landed on the ground . . . that’s when it fired,” Humbert Guizar, the attorney representing Romero’s family, explained during a May 29 press conference where he released video footage of the shooting to a small crowd of reporters.
“OK? Because it hit something, and caused it to fire.”
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office ruled it was reasonable for Medina to believe he was in “significant and immediate” danger, according to CBS Local.
But Guizar pointed out Medina couldn’t have thought Romero was holding a gun and shooting at him because he steps forward and rounds the corner instead of taking cover and would not have walked in the line of fire.
“The video shows that when the officer fired at the kid, he fired at him when he wasn’t a threat,” Guizar told reporters.
“He didn’t have a gun in his hand.”
“And he killed him.”
The Los Angeles Police Commission determined the use of force was appropriate in a 3-1 vote.
Footage from officer Medina’s body cam, as well as the other officer’s body-worn camera, can be seen above.
