Inglewood Police Kills 4th Man In As Many Months

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Feb 6, 2003
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INGLEWOOD: An Inglewood police officer shot and killed a homeless man Sunday in the fourth shooting involving an Inglewood officer in as many months, according to the coroner's office.

The shooting occurred around 2 p.m. at Market Street and Hillcrest Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"It was an officer-involved shooting in Inglewood," said Investigator Jerry McKibben of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.

The man was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m. at UCLA Medical Center, he said.

Inglewood police Lt. Michael Marshall said the department had no information on the shooting and "could not confirm that anything happened at any time anywhere at this point."

The police department is already under investigation by the county Office of Independent Review and is facing a $25 million civil lawsuit in connection with earlier officer-involved shootings.

Two Inglewood officers involved in a May 11 shooting in which 19-year-old Michael Byoune was killed and two others wounded at a restaurant near Crenshaw Boulevard and 85th Street were returned to active duty by Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

On July 1, Ruben Walton Ortega, a 23-year-old alleged gang member, was fatally shot by Inglewood police.

Kevin Wicks, 38, was shot to death by Inglewood police Officer Brian Ragan at about 12:20 a.m. July 21 after four officers went to his door in response to a report of an argument involving a man and two women.

Inglewood police said Wicks, a 19-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service in West Los Angeles, answered the door with a gun in his hand and raised it toward the officers, prompting the gunfire.

But relatives and community activists said officers responded to the wrong apartment and that if Wicks was holding a gun, it was likely only for his safety since he lived in a dangerous neighborhood and was responding to a knock on his door around midnight.

Adding to the outrage over Wicks' death was the fact that Ragan, a five-year department veteran, was one of the two officers involved in the May 11 shooting of Byoune.

Wicks' daughter, Milan, and her mother, Lashawn Brown, announced plans to file a $25 million claim against Inglewood.

Police Chief Seabrooks said a full probe of the Wicks shooting would be done.

Following calls from community activists for a thorough review of the department's policies, the Inglewood City Council voted to contract with the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, an agency created to provide investigative oversight of the Sheriff's Department, to conduct a probe of the department.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General calling for a federal investigation into the department.