An independent autopsy commissioned by the family of 29-year-old Black man Dijon Kizzee found that he was struck 15 times by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies last month, attorneys for the family said Tuesday.
Seven of the shots fired by deputies struck Kizzee on his back side, including arms and hands, said Attorney Carl Douglas. The fatal shot struck Kizzee in a lung.
"He did not die instantly, he was writhing on the ground in pain when officers opened up on him," Douglas said.
"You can tell by the audio of the shooting that there were three or four shots, and then a pause, and 15 additional shots."
LASD investigators looking into the fatal shooting said last week that Kizzee picked up a gun he had dropped before two deputies fired 19 rounds.
The independent autopsy was conducted by Dr. John Hiserodt, who found that Kizzee bled to death after blood filled his lungs. Hiserodt believes Kizzee was shot even as he was moving around -- likely writhing in pain, according to a statement from Douglas.
"The deputies who fired their weapons, called for back-up, and spent several critical minutes waiting for back-up to arrive, while Dijon was bleeding to death in the street," the statement said. "The independent autopsy supports my contention that this shooting was an execution, plain and simple."
Douglas said the incident shows excessive force and that Kizzee was not posing a deadly threat to anyone.
"He was shot 19 times and I can care less what Sheriff Villanueva said seeking to justify that lack of humanity," Douglas said in response. "Nineteen times of firing into a man's body says to me that there's been poor training."
LASD said it had no comment regarding the private autopsy results (Moon 1).
Deputies first attempted to stop Kizzee on August 31 for "riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road" and "splitting traffic," Wegener said in a news conference last Thursday. Kizzee refused to stop, abandoned his bicycle, and fled on foot with a green towel in one hand and a red and black jacket in the other hand, he said.
Kizzee's 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which was reported stolen in 2017, fell to the ground during the encounter with deputies. Wegener said Kizzee bent over and reached back to pick up the pistol before deputies fired. The gun was loaded with 15 live rounds.
Benjamin Crump, another attorney representing the Kizzee family, said last week that video footage of the incident contradicts the sheriff's department's findings.
On September 2, Crump posted a grainy cell phone video footage recorded from a house that purportedly shows the deputies pursuing Kizzee. It shows him walking away from the officers before one closes in on him. Kizzee appears to bend over before the deputy backs up rapidly and opens fire (Moon 2).
Two deputies told investigators they fatally shot Kizzee after he picked up the handgun he had dropped during a struggle with one of them, authorities said last week. A video shows him stooping down. But a wall blocks a full view, and no weapon can be seen.
It doesn’t appear the deputies tried to de-escalate the situation before shooting Kizzee. Authorities previously said Kizzee had only “made a motion” toward the gun but recently revised their narrative, saying the deputies have now claimed he had picked it up.
...
Douglas said 19 gunshots show poor police training and a pervasive “warrior mentality” among law enforcement nationwide.
“Until we change that warrior mentality to more of a guardian mentality, there’s going to be more (families) who have lost loved ones,” he said. “There’s a scourge that patrols the county of Los Angeles.”
The attorneys also questioned why the deputies sought to stop Kizzee while he was bicycling, calling it another example of “biking while Black” and racial profiling (Levin 1).
[Snopes,com reported the following]
The sheriff’s department provided no new information about the case, but a department statement said deputies tried to stop Kizzee for riding his bicycle in violation of vehicle codes, without specifying the alleged infraction. Kizzee got off his bike and ran and the deputies briefly lost sight of him, the statement said.
The video shows a police SUV stop in a street. A deputy gets out, runs around a parked car and appears to try to grab Kizzee as he walks down the sidewalk. They tussle, standing, and move down the street together for several seconds. Kissee appears to throw a punch. Police have said he hit the deputy in the face but that’s not clear from the video.
The video then shows Kissee breaking free, stumbling and falling to the ground. A second deputy arrives. Within about 2 seconds, they repeatedly open fire.
Police have not said how many shots the deputies fired. The video obtained by the Times does not have audio, but another video from a front door camera that does not show the shooting captured the sound of about 15 rounds fired.
Kizzee’s relatives have described him as devoted to his late mother and 18-year-old brother. They said he was an energetic man who loved go-karts, cars and music and that he was working toward becoming a plumber.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the largest in the nation, does not have body cameras for deputies, though that soon will change. The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved funding and the first group of deputies will be equipped with cameras next month (Associated 1-2).
On Friday, The L.A. County Medical Examiner released the autopsy report of Dijon Kizzee, a 29 year-old man that was fatally shot by L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputies on August 31 in Westmont, CA. Sheriff’s Deputies previously said they fired a total of 19 shots at Kizzee. An independent autopsy conducted by the family that was released on September 22 found that Kizzee suffered 15 gunshot wounds.
According to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s report, Kizzee suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head, chest, shoulder, forearm, hand and buttocks. Additionally, Kizzee suffered abrasions to his face, shoulders, arm, right knee and chest. The L.A. County Medical Examiner’s report confirms what the family autopsy already revealed – Kizzee was shot from behind multiple times.
The report was placed on a “security hold” for nearly a month following the fatal shooting of Kizzee, beginning on September 2. On September 22 the department lifted the hold and on October 1 the report was completed, according to a spokesperson with the L.A. County Medical Examiner. According to the Sheriff’s Department, security holds are used to conceal information from witnesses and deputies involved in shootings.
…
According to Carl Douglas, an attorney for the Kizzee family, Kizzee sustained multiple gunshot wounds while he was unarmed and on the ground. Pointing to a diagram at a September 22 press conference Douglas said, “[Gunshot wounds] E12 and E5 are elongated because Mr. Kizzee was on the ground when those grazing wounds were inflicted.”
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said that Kizzee was armed with a handgun when he was shot by Sheriff’s deputies during a September 17 press conference. Video evidence however does not show Kizzee pointing a gun at deputies before he was fatally shot (a wall obstructs the view.) And in initial reports, the department said that Kizzee only “made a motion” towards a gun.
The fatal shooting of Kizzee sparked a week of intense demonstrations targeting the South L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy station. Over 30 people were arrested and dozens of protesters and journalists were tear gassed and hit with less-lethal munitions.
On September 27, the family of Dijon Kizzee and community members came together to honor Kizzee, Andres Guardado, Anthony McClain, Ryan Twyman and other victims of police violence. Hundreds of people marched to the South L.A. Sheriff’s Station where they were met by deputies in riot gear. “The sheriff the other day tried to criminalize Westmont, tried to criminalize Dijon by saying that this area was gang territory, that there was gang warfare here.” Ernesto, a lifelong resident of South Central and community organizer, reflected on a press conference held by the Sheriff’s Department earlier in the week. “Anyone who lives in South Central understands that we don’t fear gang bangers, we fear the police” (Lexis-Olivier 1).
The family of a man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies last summer is seeking $35 million in damages from the county.
…
Kizzee's
family filed a legal claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, Wednesday
against Los Angeles County. The sheriff's department said Thursday
that detectives are still investigating the case and declined further
comment, citing the pending litigation.
Kizzee's family
says the deputies' response was excessive and unnecessary.
"He
was no animal," his aunt Fletcher Fair said during an online
news conference Thursday. "He didn't deserve to die like that
and be alone like that."
The family is being
represented by civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Carl Douglas and
Dale Galipo. The lawsuit alleges the deputies involved in the
shooting were poorly trained, had no reason to stop Kizzee in the
first place and that Kizzee was not a threat to the deputies.
"Why all of the shots and why multiple shots when he's unarmed laying on the ground?," attorney Galipo asked during the news conference. "Is that really necessary? Is that what we want our children to see?"
The L.A. County coroner says Kizzee was shot 16 times, with five of the wounds on his back. Meanwhile, the family says an independent autopsy found Kizzee suffocated when his lungs filled with blood. They blame the deputies for not immediately rendering aid to Kizzee and instead retrieving a shield from a patrol car before trying to help him.
"While Mr. Kizzee's lungs were filling up with blood, they approached him like he was some sort of an animal holding a machine gun and pointing it at them," said Douglas (Hayes 1).
[See the shooting by pasting the following on Google. Then click the “Streets Blog LA” website and scroll half way down the page to gain access to the video]
LASD is the largest county police agency in the country and has a long history of brutality scandals, controversial killings, racial profiling and corruption cases. Activists and some local lawmakers have been particularly alarmed at the continued high rate of killings this summer during the pandemic and amid national protests against police brutality.
Sheriff’s deputies have fatally shot at least eight people since the end of May, including AndrĂ©s Guardado, an 18-year-old security guard who was fleeing and shot five times in the back, and Michael Thomas, a 61-year-old grandfather who was unarmed and killed inside his home. In one case, deputies killed a man who they said was “walking on the sidewalk”, who they ended up taking to the ground after they saw he had a firearm. In another case, LASD killed a 38-year-old who had reportedly been hit by a train and allegedly approached officers with a knife.
This week, LASD also faced a lawsuit from the family of Eric Briceno, a 39-year-old with a history of mental illness who died after a violent police encounter in March. After his parents called police due to an altercation with their son, deputies entered Briceno’s room as he slept and then beat and shocked him and compressed his neck, according to the family and an autopsy report.
“We called them to come and help us, to get some help,” his mother, Blanca Briceno, told the Los Angeles Times. “And instead, they came and killed him, brutally killed him.”
She said the deputies attacked Briceno without provocation, beating him, using a baton, pepper spray and a Taser, and kneeling on his back. Briceno cried out that he couldn’t breathe, the family’s wrongful death claim alleged.
His mother said she pleaded for deputies to stop and when she took out her phone to record the scene, a deputy took it away and she was pushed out of the room.
The autopsy report said Briceno was shocked with a Taser seven or eight times. It concluded he died of cardiopulmonary arrest resulting from neck compression and restraint with a Taser, the LA Times reported.
The family has called for the deputies to face criminal charges. LASD has declined to comment on the legal claim, citing an ongoing investigation (Levin 2-3).
Works cited:
Associated Press. “New Video Shows Fatal Police Shooting of Black Man in LA.” AP, September 3, 2020. Net. https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/09/02/new-video-shows-fatal-police-shooting-of-black-man-in-la/
Hayes, Rob. “Dijon Kizzee Case: Family of Man Fatally Shot by Deputies Seeks $35M in Damages from LA County.” ABC7, February 12, 2021. Net. https://abc7.com/dijon-kizzee-protests-deputies-trainee/10331666/
Levin, Sam. “Dijon Kizzee Wasn't Holding Gun When LA Deputies Shot Him 15 Times, Family Attorneys Say.” The Guardian, September 23, 2020. Net. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/dijon-kizzee-los-angeles-sheriffs-department-shooting
Lexis-Olivier, Ray. “Breaking: Official Autopsy Report Confirms that Dijon Kizzee Was Shot from Behind Multiple Times by Sheriffs.” LA Taco, October 2, 2020. Net. https://www.lataco.com/dijon-kizzee-autopsy/
Moon, Sarah. “Independent Autopsy Shows Dijon Kizzee Was Struck 15 Times by LA Sheriff's Deputies, According to Family Attorneys.” CNN, updated September 23, 2020. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/22/us/private-autopsy-report-police-shooting-dijon-kizzee/index.html
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