A video of a man, who witnesses say was black, shot dead by LAPD officers in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles during an altercation, was published online on Sunday.
The man was shot right after he got hold of one of the officer's weapons, LAPD told the news agency.
During the events of the radio call of a robbery, #lapd officers made contact with a suspect who immediately began fighting officers
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) 2 Март 2015
The homeless man eventually got hold of the law enforcer's handgun, he added.
"We've always got resources in place and we're more than ready to be able to protect people's rights to protest peacefully," Quintero said.
The officer continued saying that as long as people protest peacefully, it is "their constitutional right."
The shooting in Los Angeles is the latest in a series of controversial incidents regarding US police officers' excessive use of weapons leading to fatal casualties. The country has seen waves of protests calling for police accountability and racial justice since summer 2014, when Eric Garner and Michael Brown were killed by police officers in separate incidents in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri.
