US Officer Shoots Man Dead in California
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A police officer has shot and killed a man who was carrying a weapon in Orange County, California, authorities said.
The shooting occurred on Saturday, as officers were chasing a Toyota Prius to arrest a female passenger riding the car, for whom they had an arrest warrant, Anaheim police Lt. Eric Trapp said.
The officers managed to make a traffic stop near Lincoln Avenue and Glassell Street in the city of Orange where one of the three passengers, a man, got out of the car holding a weapon.
On officer shot him, Trapp said, adding the man was pronounced dead at the scene. Police arrested the female suspect.
Police have begun an investigation using the footage filmed by body cameras the officers were carrying at the time of the incident.
"Because it happened in the City of Orange, per county protocol, the City of Orange is charged with investigating our officer-involved shooting, along with the Orange County District Attorney's Office," Trapp said.
In another incident on Thursday, an Oklahoma reserve deputy fatally shot a man he was trying to apprehend after he confused his weapon with a stun gun.
The sheriff's office said in a statement Saturday that Eric Harris, who was in his 40s, was shot by the reserve sheriff's deputy, 73-year-old Robert Bates, following a foot chase, Press TV reported.
Undercover officers had bought ammunition and a semi-automatic pistol from Harris when arresting officers tried to arrest him in a parking lot, according to the sheriff's office.
Harris started to run away but police caught up with him and tried to arrest him, although he was resisting arrest.
Bates, a former police officer, was trying to help the arresting officers take Harris into custody when he shot him to death.
"Initial reports have determined that the reserve deputy was attempting to use less lethal force, believing he was utilizing a Taser, when he inadvertently discharged his service weapon, firing one round which struck Harris," it said.
Gun-related casualties have turned into a “major public health crisis” in the United States, according to a recent report by eight US medical associations.
The US averages 87 deaths each day as a function of gun violence, with an average of 183 injured, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the Centers for Disease Control.
