The family of a California father of three shot dead by a police officer last summer has hired prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump to lead the charge for justice in his case, CBS 2 reports.
Anthony McClain, 32, was seated as passenger in a vehicle pulled over by Pasadena Police in August 2020 for not having a license plate. Authorities allege an uncooperative McClain, refusing orders to be searched, ran into the street holding his waistband. Pasadena Police said he removed a firearm from his waist, and upon seeing it, “fearing for both his and the public’s safety, the officer fired his weapon twice, striking the suspect at least once in the upper torso,” a statement maintains.
McClain was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.
The man’s previous legal representation contend that police planted the gun. He was only gripping the buckle on his belt, they said.
According to CBS, video from the shooting scene appeared to show an on-the-ground McClain in handcuffs and a local officer on his back, raising serious concerns that brought out Pasadena demonstrators.
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“This guy’s got a son,” Colyna Winbush told the station last year. “He got cousins, uncles, everybody that loves him. A community.”
Crump — who counts the families of police shooting victims George Floyd, Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor as clients he represents in the cities of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Kenosha, Wisconsin and Louisville, Kentucky — was joined by Floyd’s kin as he stood with the McClains, protesters and activists Monday night.
“We came to stand with these children to say, ‘Not this time,'” Crump told those assembled at Pasadena City Hall. “You will not sweep Anthony McClain under the rug.”
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