A new autopsy report found that Dijon Kizzee, the 29-year old Black man who was killed by police in L.A. on August 31, was shot at least 15 times in the back before he died.
Kizzee was stopped by police while he was riding his bike “in violation of vehicle codes,” according to CNN. When he saw the officers approach him, he got off his bike and ran away. The deputies chased him and Kizzee struggled to get away before one of the officers saw that he dropped a gun. They fired their weapons several times and Kizzee died at the scene.
#DijonKizzee was shot 15 times by LA County deputies on Aug. 31, according to an independent autopsy ordered by his family.
The fatal shot struck the 29-year-old Black man in a lung.
“He did not die instantly, he was writhing on the ground in pain,” says a family attorney. pic.twitter.com/uHsfgQCxmV
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 23, 2020
Officers initially claimed that they fired their guns because Kizzee had reached for his first. However, the latest findings from the private autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family found that Kizzee was not holding his gun when he was shot and was on his knees with his back turned to the officers.
“He was alive and bleeding and writhing in pain when the officers continued to stay away,” Carl Douglas, the family’s attorney, said. “Too often, law enforcement officers misinterpret writhing in pain as some sort of active resistance.”
