Protesters who want police held accountable in the shooting death of unarmed, mentally ill Los Angeles man Ezell Ford camped out in front of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Hancock Park home Sunday night, vowing not to leave until Tuesday.
Updated Article: Protesters Confront Mayor
Dozens of demonstrators with the Black Lives Matter movement were seeking a sit-down with Mayor Eric Garcetti before Tuesday, when the results of an investigation into Ford's August 11 shooting will be released. They demanded that Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck be fired.
"We are literally sick and tired of the excuses of the killings of young black folks in our communities and these cops getting away with it," said protester Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter movement.
Ford's mother, Tritobia Ford, arrived to the Hancock Park home with snacks for the protesters. She said she had not personally heard from the mayor about her son's killing.
"He has not given my family the respect or attention that is deserved," she said. "I feel like if he couldn't come out himself, he could've sent the very same representative that came out to our house in the beginning to at least say something."
Her message was heard. Garcetti's spokesman spoke with the mother outside the mayor's home.
"They assured me they'll set up something, but why did it take this? Why did I have to come here?" she said.
Representatives from Garcetti's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the protest and gave no comment to the Times.
Ford, 25, was shot in South LA during a scuffle with officers, according to the police account of the incident. The LAPD said Ford didn't comply with a request to stop, made suspicious movements and grabbed for an officer's gun after tackling them.
Ford's mother told NBC4 that she's heard the officers involved in the shooting will be cleared, following a Los Angeles Times report that the two shootings will be found justified.
"The mayor's house is intimate," Cullors said when asked why the protesters were demonstrating there, adding that, "Ezell Ford was murdered on his block and we want to bring the stories of black folks and what we face on a daily basis to the front of Mayor Garcetti's house."
Days after the shooting, the LAPD pledged that it would conduct an urgent and transparent investigation. The Los Angeles Police Commission will take up the two investigations, conducted by the LAPD and an independent watchdog, on Tuesday, commission President Steve Soboroff said.
Cullors said the protesters outside Garcetti's house said they wouldn't leave until the Tuesday meeting "unless he decides to get a hotel somewhere, and then we'll figure out where that is and we'll show up there as well.
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NBC4's Melissa Etezadi contributed to this report.
