Keunang, who had been convicted for armed robbery and was wanted for violating probation, was shot and killed during a struggle with police on Sunday afternoon on Los Angeles’s Skid Row, a homeless community downtown. During the incident, he “forcibly grabbed” a rookie cop’s gun and three other officers opened fire, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said earlier this week.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting was captured on smartphones and in surveillance footage from Union Rescue Mission, prompting several protests.
Witnesses called Keunang by his street name, “Africa.” Later, police identified him by his stolen identity, a name under which he was convicted for robbing a Wells Fargo Bank. He was sentenced and imprisoned in 2000. After serving his sentence, U.S. officials wanted to deport him, but Cameroon never responded to such requests, and France refused because he wasn’t a French citizen.
Last year, Keunang was released from prison and sent to a halfway house where he lived six months before apparently pitching a tent on Skid Row. In the past several months, he failed to check in with his probation officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith the AP that police had spoken with him before, but didn’t suspect he was wanted.
“If you’re cool and you’re quiet, and you don’t make a big fuss, you can sit out there quietly and live in your tent pretty much in peace,” he said. “If the feds put out a warrant for this guy, shoot, there’s no reason we’d suspect he’s in Skid Row.”
The coroner’s report determined Keunang died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The four officers involved were placed on paid leave during the investigation.