Unarmed Ezell Ford, killed by Los Angeles police, new report

This video from the USA says about itself:

Ezell Ford Autopsy Suggests The Cops’ Story Might Not Add Up

30 December 2014

“The official autopsy report for Ezell Ford, an unarmed, mentally ill black man shot to death by Los Angeles police in August, was released by the county coroner’s office Monday after the Los Angeles Police Department lifted an investigative hold that had blocked the report from public view for over four months.

The coroner’s investigation ruled Ford’s death a homicide by multiple gunshot wounds.

Ford, 25, was killed by LAPD officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas, both on gang enforcement detail, shortly after 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 in the Florence neighborhood of South LA. The report provides the first detailed account from authorities of his injuries.

According to the autopsy report, Ford was shot three times, resulting in two fatal wounds and one nonfatal.” The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

LA cops shot unarmed man in the back

Wednesday 31st December 2014

‘Horrifying’ post-mortem report lays bare shooting of mentally ill 25-year-old Ezell Ford

Autopsy evidence released on Monday showed that unarmed black man Ezell Ford, who was killed by Los Angeles police, was shot three times, including once in the back at close range.

The August 11 death of Mr Ford is among a string of cases in the US this year in which black men have been killed by police officers in contentious and bitterly contested circumstances.

Evidence from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office showed Mr Ford had been shot once in the back, once in the arm and once in the abdomen.

The wound to his back left a “muzzle imprint” on his skin, suggesting he was shot at very close range.

Mr Ford’s family lawyer Steven Lerman decried the “horrifying” report.

“What they did to Mr Ford is nothing short of criminal,” said Mr Lerman.

Mr Ford, who was 25 and suffered from mental illness, was killed during a confrontation with patrol officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas.

At the time of the incident, Mr Ford was alone and unarmed.

The Los Angeles Police Department claimed officers Wampler and Villegas attempted to talk to Mr Ford, who walked away and was “attempting to conceal his hands.”

Police claimed: “Ford grabbed the officer’s handgun and attempted to remove the gun from its holster.”

But the Ford family and witnesses cited by local media flatly denied Mr Ford had been aggressive. The autopsy was only published after residents complained.

In recent months, demonstrators have taken to the streets across the US to protest at disproportionate police violence against unarmed African Americans, including the choking death of Eric Garner in New York and the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Grand juries have declined to charge the officers involved.

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable president Earl Ofari Hutchinson called for district attorney Jackie Lacey to review the possibility of filing criminal charges against police in the Ford case.

Several Ford family members and supporters protested in Los Angeles on Monday night, demanding justice for him and for other African Americans who have died at the hands of police.

At Philosophy Football’s Why Black Matters seminar, Dave Zirin spoke to Kadeem Simmonds about the first athlete to protest at the recent killings in the US, a young female basketball player called Ariyana Smith: here.