Official autopsy reveals Dijon Kizzee shot by LA deputies 16 times
The victim died in a hail of police bullets after riding his bike on the wrong side of the street.
The official autopsy of Dijon Kizzee confirms that the 29-year-old was shot 16 times by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in August, with multiple bullets causing “rapidly life-threatening wounds.”
The family of Kizzee had previously commissioned an independent autopsy, which declared the victim may have not attempted to aim a gun at police as previously claimed, theGRIO reported.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the family’s autopsy report also revealed that police were still firing after Kizzee was on the ground and could have survived if given medical attention.
Read More: Independent autopsy finds Dijon Kizzee shot 15 times by LA deputies
“What this shows is he was alive and breathing and writhing in pain when the officers continued to stay away,” said family attorney, Carl Douglas. “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.”
The official autopsy report released last week certified Kizzee’s death as a homicide (by law enforcement) and the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds. The “rapidly fatal injuries include trauma to the heart, lungs, liver and left kidney,” according to the report, per CNN.
An earlier article on theGrio noted that 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 then later claimed they began shooting because Kizzee “made a motion” for the gun.
Kizzee’s death sparked protests in South Los Angeles amid civil unrest over the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump said video footage of the incident contradicts the sheriff’s department’s account of the incident.
The independent autopsy noted that Kizzee bled to death after blood filled his lungs.
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