Independent autopsy finds Dijon Kizzee shot 15 times by LA deputies
Dijon Kizzee could have survived if he was given medical attention but instead officers kept shooting him according to the independent autopsy
An autopsy has revealed that a L.A. man was shot about 15 times by police last month. The family of 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee commissioned an independent autopsy which declared the young man may have not attempted to aim a gun at police as previously claimed.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the autopsy also exposed that police were still firing their gun after the victim was on the ground and could have survived if given medical attention.
“What this shows is he was alive and breathing and writhing in pain when the officers continued to stay away,” said the family attorney, Carl Douglas, at a press conference on Tuesday. “When they got a shield first, and they had a shield walking up to the man while he was writhing in pain. All too often, law enforcement officers misinterpret writhing in pain as some sort of act of resistance.”
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Dr. John Hiserodt, who conducted the autopsy, concluded that Kizzee bled to death after blood filled his lungs. Douglas presented the statement.
“The deputies who fired their weapons, called for back-up, and spent several critical minutes waiting for back-up to arrive, while Dijon was bleeding to death in the street,” the statement read. “The independent autopsy supports my contention that this shooting was an execution, plain and simple.”
As previously reported by theGrio, Kizzee was shot in South LA in Budlong Ave. and 110th in August. He was riding his bike on the wrong side of the street when two deputies from South L.A. stopped him. Kizzee dropped his bike to run and as one of the deputies caught up to him, there was allegedly a struggle and Kizzee dropped a weapon.
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Capt. Kent Wegener claimed Kizzee, “bends over, reaches, picks up the gun and is shot as he stands with the gun in hand.”
He added, “You will see that the deputy struggling with Kizzee does not arm himself until Kizzee bends down to pick up the gun he dropped.”
But the Captain’s story differed from witnesses who say deputies did not try to deescalate the situation and that Kizzee was shot with nothing in his hands. The sheriffs office also had conflicting stories. First they said the shooting happened when the gun hit the ground but reneged that statement to say they began shooting at him because Kizzee “made a motion” for the gun.
His family attended Tuesday’s press conference with face masks that read “Justice for Dijon Kizzee.”
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