LA police shooting: What we know and don’t know

Because the man appears in the four-minute video to be on his back on the ground when shots are fired, some have blasted the police, saying excessive force was used. The police, who said they were answering a call about a robbery, have said they are investigating the incident. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday that the man reached for an officer’s gun.

A witness told the Los Angeles Times the man reached for an officer’s weapon.

Here’s what we know and don’t know so far about the shooting. It comes after the high-profile police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, among others, stoking heightened scrutiny of law enforcement and the communities they police.

What does the video show?

We know: The video, recorded Sunday, begins with a man swinging his arms at police officers outside a Los Angeles homeless shelter. An officer tackles him, and three others try to subdue the man. At least one officer appears to pull out a stun gun and tries to shock the man.

“Drop the gun!” a voice yells.

Bales said the man lived near the mission and helped employees “clean up every day,” according to the newspaper. But sometimes the man acted out, according to Bales.

“One day, he came flying out of his tent and knocked some stuff out of the hands of passersby,” Bales told the Times.

Bales also said the man got into a fight about a half-hour before the shooting, which prompted a phone call to police.

We don’t know: Police have not released the name of the man, and there’s still much to be learned about the man’s background and how he wound up on the streets. Details about the man’s physical and mental health are also unknown.

CNN’s Sara Sidner, Michael Pearson and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

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