Protests Over Police Killings Grow

Protesters still angry over the fatal shooting of a Riverside teenager escalated their calls for justice Tuesday to include the case of a mentally ill homeless woman who was shot to death by a Los Angeles police officer last week during a dispute over her shopping cart.

More than 350 demonstrators carried signs and chanted “No justice, no peace, no racist police!” in front of the U.S. attorney’s office in downtown Los Angeles.

A phalanx of federal police stood by but made no arrests as the demonstrators carried out their rally peacefully.

The demonstrators, led by activist Danny Bakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade, threatened to continue weekly civil disobedience marches if federal charges are not filed against the four Riverside police officers who fatally shot Tyisha Miller.

Miller, 19, was shot more than 20 times Dec. 28 as she sat in her parked car at a gas station.

The Riverside County district attorney said there was insufficient evidence to warrant filing criminal charges against the officers.

The FBI is now investigating that case and the officers’ contentions that they shot Miller as she reached for a gun in her lap.

But the focus of the Tuesday rally quickly turned to the case of Margaret Laverne Mitchell, 54, who was fatally shot in the chest during an encounter with a Los Angeles police officer last Friday.

Officer Edward Larrigan had stopped Mitchell--a fixture on La Brea Avenue in Hancock Park--to see if she had stolen the shopping cart she was pushing.

Bakewell and others said they do not believe police accounts that Larrigan acted out of fear for his life when he shot Mitchell, who was just over five feet tall and weighed 102 pounds, after she lunged at him with a long screwdriver.

Police also said Larrigan may have stumbled slightly to avoid being slashed by the screwdriver, and that he may have been falling to the ground when he fired the single shot.

“With this homeless woman, I mean . . . police can’t duck? They can’t get out of the way?” Bakewell asked. “They ought to be fired off of the Police Department.”

Family’s Lawyer, Police Chief Differ

At the Los Angeles Police Commission meeting Tuesday night, Leo J. Terrell, the attorney representing Mitchell’s family, accused the LAPD of orchestrating a cover-up and said he believes the investigation is a “whitewash.”

Terrell said he has gathered statements from three eyewitnesses who contend that Mitchell was not a threat to the officers.

But Chief Bernard C. Parks said people should not judge the investigation before it is concluded.

“We have to give [the officers] some form of credibility that they are telling us the truth, that they are doing what they are trained to do, and they were reacting to circumstances where they obviously felt they were in danger,” Parks said.

Capt. James Tatreau, at the same meeting, revealed several new details about the shooting. He said that Larrigan tried to draw his pepper spray, but Mitchell lunged at him from about seven feet away before he could.

Terrell said in a statement that he plans to have a second autopsy done by a Pittsburgh pathologist, Dr. Cyril Wecht, “to ensure that an unbiased autopsy is performed without an attempt to compromise evidence.”

Coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said his office would make available to Wecht any of the specimens and tissue samples taken during the first autopsy of Mitchell on Sunday.

Terrell also said he was setting up a memorial trust fund to cover burial expenses for Mitchell, who had raised a son alone and worked at several banks after graduating from Cal State L.A. In later years, she slipped progressively into mental illness and ended up homeless.

On Tuesday, another makeshift memorial was put up at the site of the shooting at the corner of La Brea and 4th streets. A protester had spattered the sidewalk with a red mixture, and there were some protest signs. Said one: “To Serve and Protect Who?”