Tow Truck Driver Fatally Shot After Scuffle With Police Officers

A white Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a black tow truck driver Wednesday night after the man allegedly scuffled with police in a service station at Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, less than four miles west of the flash point where rioting erupted in April.

Police said two officers on motorcycles recognized the tow truck as belonging to someone they had arrested a week earlier on suspicion of possessing stolen property. The truck had been impounded and released, but the officers believed that the truck was not properly registered, said Lt. William Hall, who heads the department’s Officer Involved Shooting team.

The officer who fired the fatal shot “wasn’t shooting to save himself,” Hall said. “He was concerned about the possibility of pedestrians and motorists being hit by the truck. He was afraid the man was going to run over somebody.”

The two officers approached the tow truck about 6:30 p.m. and asked the driver for his license, Hall said. The driver exchanged words with the officers, returned to his truck and attempted to drive away, Hall said.

The officers pulled the man from the truck’s cab, but he got back in, Hall said. One officer fired a single shot at the man, who was behind the wheel of the slowly moving truck. The man, whose identity was not released, was struck in the neck. He was pronounced dead at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital.

At least 200 people gathered after the shooting and began taunting police with shouts of “KKK!” and “Pigs!” witnesses said.

“They kill a black man and don’t think nothing about it,” said Doris Thurman, who lives in the area.