INGLEWOOD – Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon says there is “insufficient evidence” to prove five former Inglewood police officers broke the law when they fired a shotgun and rifle killing a couple asleep on Manchester Blvd.
Prosecutors confirmed Wednesday that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office decided it could not bring criminal charges against five former Inglewood Police Department officers — who shot to death a man and woman initially found asleep or unconscious in a parked car.
The DA’s decision, issued more than 5 years after the February 21, 2016 killings of Kisha Michael and Marquintan Sandlin said, “we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers’ use of deadly force was unlawful.”
The 36 page memo from the DA’s office that detailed its review of the officers’ actions noted that the Inglewood Police Department’s investigation of the killings was, “incomplete,” but said that the physical evidence in the case largely corroborated the accounts the five shooting officers gave to investigators: that they were fearful either Michael or Sandlin would use the handgun in the car to fire at police.
Eric Leonard, NBC
With the DA declining to file charges, will the City allow time to expire and quietly bring back the officers to desk duty? Several officers involved in questionable shootings, remain on the city’s payroll, but out of the public’s eye.
The report details the five officers were on the force between 1 -5 years, who fired the fatal shots, that killed the couple.
The couple woke up. Sandlin had rolled down the back window and appeared moved his car which either bumped into the IPD vehicle in front of him, or the Bearcat directly behind him. The report doesn’t mention if the car was still running or not.
Michael, who had a gun in her lap, appears to be trying to comply with the officers commands, after witnessing Sandlin’s murder, she opened the passenger door, with her hands up. She then dropped her hands towards her waist and was immediately fired upon.
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