Los Angeles, CA – The family of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, 23, will hold a candlelight vigil with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles Monday, Dec. 9 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his shooting death by officers from the Torrance Police Department.
Mitchell, a resident of Los Angeles, was killed on Dec. 9, 2019, during an officer-involved shooting in a Torrance Ralphs’s grocery store parking lot after authorities claimed he “was armed with a rifle” and was in a stolen vehicle. The Torrance Police Department later clarified that that alleged rifle was a toy air rifle.
Mitchell was shot within one minute of the officers making contact with him. The encounter was caught on the body camera of one of the officers and showed that Mitchell did not have the toy in his hands or point the toy at the officers. Mitchell never made any aggressive or furtive gestures towards the officers prior to being shot to death.
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Mitchell’s family and Black Lives Matter continue to demand that the Torrance Police Department fire officers Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon, the officers involved in the fatal encounter, and create a civilian oversight committee to review the complaints of excessive force by their officers.
Press Release via Jasmyne Cannick
