About 100 people protesting what they consider a bad shooting by Los Angeles Police Department officers Sunday protested late Monday night near where cops killed a man after he lunged at police with a weapon.
Around 10:15 p.m. a police skirmish line had formed and police declared an illegal assembly. At least one bottle was thrown at officers.
The LA Times reported that four people were arrested.
Earlier in the day dozens of people protesting the fatal shooting by police of the man near MacArthur Park marched to the LAPD Rampart station, prompting a police modified tactical alert and the closure of Sixth Street, police said.
Manuel Jamines, 37, a Guatemalan construction worker and father of three, was allegedly drunk and threatening passersby about 1 p.m. Sunday near Union Avenue and Sixth Street.
He allegedly ignored orders by Los Angeles police bicycle officers to drop the weapon and instead lunged at them, prompting one of the officers to shoot him, police said.
Protesters said Jamines was drunk but not dangerous, and the shooting was unjustified.
Police said there were fewer than 50 protesters, but television reports indicated that hundreds in the heavily Guatemalan neighborhood were upset about the shooting.
``They're becoming like military people,'' said Albert Villa.
Another woman said that, ``This murder was an outrage. He was drunk, that was it. That's no reason for police to kill him.''
Protesters asked why police didn't use a non-lethal weapon to restraing the suspect.
LAPD Lt. Andrew Neiman said, ``when you're trying to stop a suspect or stop a deadly action, the purpose is to stop the threat as quickly as possible.''
The protesters marched back and forth between the shooting scene and the LAPD Rampart Station, about 10 minutes away, shouting ``assassin'' in Spanish.
Police in riot gear monitored the protest and closed off Sixth Street. They also went on modified tactical alert in case the demonstration turned violent.
Some of the protesters seemed to brawl among themselves, but as of 5 p.m., no arrests had been made and no injuries were reported, said Officer Gregory Baek with the LAPD's Media Relations Section.
Neiman said investigators had found several witnesses who said they saw Jamines threatening people.
``One of those was a woman who said she saw the suspect threatening a woman with a knife,'' he said. ``Her attention was drawn by a crying 4-year-old who was standing next to the woman.''
Neiman said the woman then intervened. ``She told the man to go away because he was scaring these people, at which time the suspect then turned his attention to her and began threatening her with the knife,'' he said.
At that point, witnesses alerted bicycle officers about a knife-wielding man who was acting ``irrational,'' he said.
Jamines was familiar to neighborhood residents who described him as a ``nuisance who was habitually drunk'' and often walked around with a ``glazed look'' on his face, he said.
Area resident Kelly Flor, who identified herself as a community activist, told NBC4 that Jamines did not speak English.
``He could not speak English, so he could not understand what the officer was saying, and after that the officer proceeded in shooting him twice in the head,'' she said.
Neiman said that when officers arrived, they ordered the man in both Spanish and English several times to drop the knife but he refused.
``Instead, he came after the officers with a knife raised in the air leading one of the officers to fire at the suspect, fatally wounding him,'' said Neiman.
Neiman said there was already friction between neighborhood residents and Rampart station officers, who have been cracking down on ``illegal street- vending.''
After the shooting, a restive crowd gathered around the body, which was covered with a white sheet.
`Assassin, assassin. You will pay for this,'' someone shouted in Spanish at police.
Neiman said the shooting was under investigation, and witnesses were urged to contact the LAPD's Force Investigation unit at (213) 486-5200.
