mick silver
4th March 2015, 01:21 PM
France, Cameroon wouldn't take foreigner later shot by LAPDhttp://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/) By ELLIOT SPAGAT AND TAMI ABDOLLAH 1 hour ago
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A homeless foreigner shot to death by Los Angeles police was in the country illegally after serving time for a bank robbery but couldn't be deported because no country would take him, U.S. immigration authorities said Wednesday.
Related Stories
France, Cameroon wouldn't take foreigner later shot by LAPD (http://news.yahoo.com/details-questions-emerge-homeless-man-shot-la-police-080651470.html) Associated Press
Homeless man shot dead by LAPD had served time for bank robbery (http://news.yahoo.com/homeless-man-shot-dead-lapd-had-served-time-024432293.html) Reuters
U.S. authorities had tried to deport man killed by Los Angeles police (http://news.yahoo.com/u-authorities-had-sought-deport-man-shot-dead-173149519.html) Reuters
Los Angeles police shoot, kill man in fight caught on video (http://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-police-shoot-kill-man-skid-row-031604278.html) Associated Press
Homeless man killed by LA police 'not French': French ministry (http://news.yahoo.com/homeless-man-killed-la-police-not-french-french-002417672.html) AFP
France issued travel documents for a man identified as Charley Saturmin Robinet but rescinded them in June 2013 after determining it was an assumed name and the man was really from Cameroon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a statement.
ICE, which had issued a deportation order in April 2013, said Cameroon consular officials failed to respond to repeated requests for travel documents after France spurned him.
Cameroonian officials could not immediately be reached to comment. Voicemail for a phone line at the country's embassy in Washington, D.C., was full Wednesday.
The man, who was known as "Africa" in the rundown Los Angeles area of Skid Row, was shot to death Sunday. The confrontation that led to his death was recorded on a bystander's cellphone and viewed millions of times online.
Authorities said the man tried to grab a rookie Los Angeles police officer's gun, prompting three other officers shot him.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/suzette-shaw-left-homeless-woman-joins-others-protesting-photo-192321643.html)Suzette Shaw, left, a homeless woman, joins others protesting a police shooting of a homeless man on …
Like many people on Skid Row, the man suffered from mental illness and his background was murky. He told U.S. authorities he was from Cameroon and gave a different name — Keunang — after France rejected him, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public.
The man was in immigration custody in September 2013 when a federal judge in California ordered him to a halfway house. The man had no place to stay and no permanent address.
He had served roughly 13 years in prison and spent six months in the halfway house before he was released in May 2014, said Ed Ross, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that immigration authorities cannot detain people indefinitely just because no country will take them. Per the ruling, after 180 days of detention, if the actual removal cannot occur within the reasonably foreseeable future, ICE must release the individual.
Kice said the man regularly reported to immigration officials as required by terms of his release.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/los-angeles-police-detective-meghan-aguilar-points-photos-photo-235316567.html)Los Angeles Police detective Meghan Aguilar points at photos released by police that could indicate …
Axel Cruau, consul general for France in Los Angeles, said the man stole the identity of a French citizen to obtain a French passport in the late 1990s to come to the United States to pursue an acting career.
Using that name, the man was identified as a French national in 2000 when he was convicted of robbing a Wells Fargo branch and pistol-whipping an employee in what he told authorities was an effort to pay for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
That arrest spurred the consulate to provide the man with support, but as he was nearing his release from prison in 2013 officials found the real Robinet in France, Cruau said.
While in federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota, the man was assigned to the mental health unit, and federal officials said medical staff determined he had "a mental disease or defect" that required treatment in a psychiatric hospital, documents show.
Though multiple videos and two officer-worn cameras captured the shooting, exactly what happened is unclear.
View gallery
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/los-angeles-police-chief-charlie-beck-comments-shooting-photo-212814500.html)Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck comments on the shooting of a homeless man on Skid Row of Los …
Video showed the man reaching toward a rookie officer's waistband, police Chief Charlie Beck said. The officer's gun was later found partly cocked and jammed with a round of ammunition in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon, the chief said.
Beck said the officers had arrived to investigate a robbery report and the man refused to obey their commands and became combative.
The four officers are on paid leave, which is customary in such shootings.
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Associated Press writers Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and contributed to this report.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/pedestrian-walks-past-flowers-candles-placed-sidewalk-near-photo-174255636.html)A pedestrian walks past flowers and candles placed on a sidewalk near where a man was shot and kille …
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Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .
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Associated Press Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .
Crime & Justice
Society & Culture
Cameroon
Los Angeles
France
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A homeless foreigner shot to death by Los Angeles police was in the country illegally after serving time for a bank robbery but couldn't be deported because no country would take him, U.S. immigration authorities said Wednesday.
Related Stories
France, Cameroon wouldn't take foreigner later shot by LAPD (http://news.yahoo.com/details-questions-emerge-homeless-man-shot-la-police-080651470.html) Associated Press
Homeless man shot dead by LAPD had served time for bank robbery (http://news.yahoo.com/homeless-man-shot-dead-lapd-had-served-time-024432293.html) Reuters
U.S. authorities had tried to deport man killed by Los Angeles police (http://news.yahoo.com/u-authorities-had-sought-deport-man-shot-dead-173149519.html) Reuters
Los Angeles police shoot, kill man in fight caught on video (http://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-police-shoot-kill-man-skid-row-031604278.html) Associated Press
Homeless man killed by LA police 'not French': French ministry (http://news.yahoo.com/homeless-man-killed-la-police-not-french-french-002417672.html) AFP
France issued travel documents for a man identified as Charley Saturmin Robinet but rescinded them in June 2013 after determining it was an assumed name and the man was really from Cameroon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a statement.
ICE, which had issued a deportation order in April 2013, said Cameroon consular officials failed to respond to repeated requests for travel documents after France spurned him.
Cameroonian officials could not immediately be reached to comment. Voicemail for a phone line at the country's embassy in Washington, D.C., was full Wednesday.
The man, who was known as "Africa" in the rundown Los Angeles area of Skid Row, was shot to death Sunday. The confrontation that led to his death was recorded on a bystander's cellphone and viewed millions of times online.
Authorities said the man tried to grab a rookie Los Angeles police officer's gun, prompting three other officers shot him.
View gallery
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/UwOGNRPKpsFTiWP0aiwXtA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIxMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/0e754a45fe7bbb096f0f6a706700484a.jpg
(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/suzette-shaw-left-homeless-woman-joins-others-protesting-photo-192321643.html)Suzette Shaw, left, a homeless woman, joins others protesting a police shooting of a homeless man on …
Like many people on Skid Row, the man suffered from mental illness and his background was murky. He told U.S. authorities he was from Cameroon and gave a different name — Keunang — after France rejected him, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public.
The man was in immigration custody in September 2013 when a federal judge in California ordered him to a halfway house. The man had no place to stay and no permanent address.
He had served roughly 13 years in prison and spent six months in the halfway house before he was released in May 2014, said Ed Ross, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that immigration authorities cannot detain people indefinitely just because no country will take them. Per the ruling, after 180 days of detention, if the actual removal cannot occur within the reasonably foreseeable future, ICE must release the individual.
Kice said the man regularly reported to immigration officials as required by terms of his release.
View gallery
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/sidP7MqIpQpFqRWMJUuh1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwNztxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/5496f892d63fa7096f0f6a706700159e.jpg
(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/los-angeles-police-detective-meghan-aguilar-points-photos-photo-235316567.html)Los Angeles Police detective Meghan Aguilar points at photos released by police that could indicate …
Axel Cruau, consul general for France in Los Angeles, said the man stole the identity of a French citizen to obtain a French passport in the late 1990s to come to the United States to pursue an acting career.
Using that name, the man was identified as a French national in 2000 when he was convicted of robbing a Wells Fargo branch and pistol-whipping an employee in what he told authorities was an effort to pay for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
That arrest spurred the consulate to provide the man with support, but as he was nearing his release from prison in 2013 officials found the real Robinet in France, Cruau said.
While in federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota, the man was assigned to the mental health unit, and federal officials said medical staff determined he had "a mental disease or defect" that required treatment in a psychiatric hospital, documents show.
Though multiple videos and two officer-worn cameras captured the shooting, exactly what happened is unclear.
View gallery
http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/C0q6kUpmiELl1od4nIOIng--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE5OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/7223b217d5baa5096f0f6a70670076ec.jpg
(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/los-angeles-police-chief-charlie-beck-comments-shooting-photo-212814500.html)Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck comments on the shooting of a homeless man on Skid Row of Los …
Video showed the man reaching toward a rookie officer's waistband, police Chief Charlie Beck said. The officer's gun was later found partly cocked and jammed with a round of ammunition in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon, the chief said.
Beck said the officers had arrived to investigate a robbery report and the man refused to obey their commands and became combative.
The four officers are on paid leave, which is customary in such shootings.
___
Associated Press writers Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and contributed to this report.
View gallery
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/pedestrian-walks-past-flowers-candles-placed-sidewalk-near-photo-174255636.html)A pedestrian walks past flowers and candles placed on a sidewalk near where a man was shot and kille …
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Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .
___
Associated Press Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
___
Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .
Crime & Justice
Society & Culture
Cameroon
Los Angeles
France
Click to view comments
View Comments (1325)