Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck agreed to meet today with a group calling for the firing of two officers involved in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Ezell Ford, LAPD officials said.
Members of the group, which is protesting under the motto “Black Lives Matter,” have been gathering regularly outside police headquarters since autopsy results were released last week showing Ford was shot once in the right side of his back, once in the right arm and once in the right abdomen. The time of today’s meeting was not immediately announced.
Two protesters were arrested Monday, with police saying the pair disobeyed orders and tried to breach a barricade around LAPD headquarters. The women insisted they were only trying to deliver a letter to request a meeting with Beck.
Several members of the group went Tuesday to a meeting of the Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, to demand that Beck fire the two officers who shot Ford, with one speaker calling Beck a “coward.”
Sharlton Wampler, a 12-year veteran of the LAPD, and eight-year veteran Antonio Villegas have been on administrative duty since shooting Ford in South Los Angeles on Aug. 11 .
The group says LAPD officers were aware that Ford had mental health issues and the two officers should not have shot Ford, who was unarmed. The two officers contend they acted in self-defense, saying Ford was reaching for one of the officer’s guns.
In addition to calling for the two officers to be fired, the Black Lives Matter group is also demanding that the Police Commission urge District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate and press charges against officers who use excessive force.
The group also requested the release of the autopsy report on 37-year- old Omar Abrego, who died in August about 12 hours after a struggle with a pair of LAPD officers who had pulled him over. The group says it wants the police to work with the community on a plan for how officers should respond to calls.
