Americas

Americas

Protesters storm police station in California

24 July 2012 04:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. US demonstrators have stormed a police department in Orange County in the state of California to protest the controversial shooting death of an unarmed Latino man by a police officer, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Chanting "no justice, no peace" and "cops, pigs, murderers," the crowd swarmed the Anaheim Police headquarters after an Anaheim police officer fatally shot Manuel Diaz, 24, Saturday afternoon, The Associated Press reported on Sunday.

The shooting sparked violent protests and outrage in the community. On Saturday, protesters gathered near the shooting scene and set fire to a trash bin and threw rocks and bottles at officers who were securing the scene for investigators to collect evidence.

Police used pepper balls and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Videos of the scene showed police also unleashed a K-9 dog into the crowd. The dog charged at several people, including a woman and a child in a stroller, before biting a man in the arm.

Five people were arrested in Anaheim during the two days of violence, the latest in a series of actions by families of shooting victims, some of whom have been holding weekly protests for nearly two years at police headquarters in Orange County.

According to Anaheim Police Chief John Welter, the Saturday shooting occurred after two officers spotted three men acting suspiciously in a neighborhood in northeastern Anaheim. One of the officers chased Diaz and shot him. Diaz later died in the hospital.

Welter said two officers were placed on paid leave but did not say what prompted the office to open fire.

â€œHe was shot first in the back, but he was down," Diazâ€™s mother, Genevieve Huizar, said, adding that â€œthen they shot him a second time. They shot him in the head.â€

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait has called for an independent investigation into the shooting and has asked the state Attorney Generalâ€™s office to get involved in the case.

"Transparency is essential,â€ Tait said, noting, â€œThe investigation will seek the truth. And whatever the truth is, we will own it.â€

Late on Sunday, in another incident several miles away from the Saturday afternoon shooting, an officer shot and killed a man police said was shooting at them.