Update: On November 24, the Los Angeles Police Commission–the civilian oversight board of the LAPD–unanimously ruled that the fatal shooting of Victor Valencia was "in policy."
[dropcap size=big]W[/dropcap]hen Sergeant I Colin Langsdale responded to a 911 call near Culver City, they thought Victor Valencia was a black man with a gun. “Suspect is a male black, armed with a small black handgun in his left hand. He was last seen walking towards Overland,” an LAPD dispatcher said over the radio a little earlier.
“Okay watch your crossfire, watch your crossfire, don’t want it to go into the Shell station,” someone over the radio reminded all units to be mindful of innocent bystanders as they closed in on a busy Shell gas station on the corner of Venice and Sepulveda Blvd at around 12:45 PM. Seconds later, “Shots fired! Shots fired...one suspect is down.”
Later, the LAPD admitted, what was thought was a pistol was actually just a bicycle part and Valencia was Latino—not black. After the shooting Valencia was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 31 years old.
On Monday, 16 days after Valencia was gunned down, LAPD released a 40-minute critical incident video on their YouTube channel. The video is notably longer than most critical incident videos. The last three that the department released are less than 40 minutes combined. In the most recent video, public information officer, Josh Rubenstein, acknowledged that the video was being released early due to “significant community concern,” regarding the incident.