Officer Attends Vigil for Homeless Man Shot by LAPD

A prayer vigil was held Wednesday night for a homeless man who was fatally shot by LAPD officers on Skid Row, in an incident caught on cellphone video that prompted community outrage.

The vigil for the man known as "Africa" was focused, not on the politics and policing techniques, but on shared sadness, said Pastor Tony Stallworth from Community Church of the Nazarene.

It's being held "so that people could come and pray and grieve, without the other stuff," he said.

LAPD Officer Deon Joseph, who has worked on Skid Row for 17 years, attended the vigil despite fears of being turned away by angry community members.

“This morning I said, if I go will I get shouted down? Will I have to apologize and leave?” he told NBC4.

Joseph showed up in his uniform and sat side-by-side with others in the front row. Then he took the stage and bowed his head in prayer.

“I pray for Africa’s loved ones,” he said. “I pray for peace and love in this community.”

After the vigil, Joseph decided to walk through Skid Row, where hostility was still fresh from the video of the shooting.

"We came on this job to save lives, not to take lives, and unfortunately it’s just a part of our jobs and I’m sorry, I'm sorry,” Joseph said.

"We have to deal with the failures of society, not taking care of the most marginalized,” he added.

Earlier, a homeless man told NBC4 he was attacked by Africa on Sunday morning before the shooting.

"I'm tying my shoelace and boom, with a baseball bat,” said the man, who did not give his name.

He said Africa then kicked his plate of breakfast into the street.

"He's ranting and raving with the baseball bat," he said.

Later, Africa attacked the man’s friend, after which police were called, leading to the shooting.

The man shot by Los Angeles police was a Cameroon national, according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal agency didn't release his name.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office is working with the U.S. State Department and immigration officials to identity the man.

A law enforcement official identified Charley Saturmin Robinet, 39, as the man police shot. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and talked to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The man was living under an assumed name and was wanted for violating probation terms for a bank robbery conviction, French and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

He was ordered removed from the United States in April 2013 while he was serving a sentence in federal prison for armed robbery and firearms convictions, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Because he claimed French citizenship, he was initially granted travel papers to that country. France later denied his travel after learning he was from Cameroon.

Cameroonian authorities repeatedly failed to respond to requests for a travel document, Kice said in a statement.

The confrontation that led to Africa's death was recorded on a bystander's cellphone and viewed millions of times online.

Authorities said the man tried to grab a rookie Los Angeles police officer's gun, prompting three other officers to shoot him.

Patrick Healy, Jason Kandel and Nyree Arabian contributed to this report.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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