Political Gumbo: Focus Should Be on the Decision to Shoot

It’s time to move beyond the guessing games and conspiracy theories regarding the presence of a gun at the scene of the officer-involved shooting death of Anthony McClain and ask some real questions.

Gun or no gun, there are more important questions to be asked, including why a police officer decided to fire his weapon twice from behind at McClain who was fleeing the scene and had clearly escaped two officers as he ran southeast on North Raymond Avenue, toward East Washington Boulevard.

Also, somebody needs to answer why the officer who pulled the trigger didn’t turn on his body-worn camera.

First, the particulars. McClain was fatally shot on Aug. 15. just before 8 p.m., after fleeing from officers during a traffic stop.

Body-worn camera footage released by the city on Friday backs up the first part of the story released by the Police Department, that McClain was a passenger in a car that police had pulled over on North Raymond Avenue, near La Pintoresca Park, for not having a front license plate. The car’s front plate had fallen off soon after the car was purchased, and the driver presented it to police officers when asked.

The driver fully cooperated with the officers, and the contact police officer with him was respectful and polite.

However, claims that McClain was uncooperative are hard to verify because the officer dealing with McClain on the passenger side of the vehicle did not turn on his camera until after the shooting had occurred, which calls into question whose responsibility it is to guarantee those cameras are on when officers hit the streets.

That officer also never appears to assert any authority in the situation. McClain clearly has his hands in or near his pants pockets as he steps out of the passenger side of the car, the video does not make it clear if the officer asks him to keep his hands away from his pockets.

Also, if the police officer had been standing at an angle to his left, it may have made it more difficult for McClain to flee in either direction as he would have had to travel around the open car door to flee in one direction and the police officer standing in the way of the other.

McClain almost immediately fled after he stepped out of the vehicle.

The focus has been on what McClain appears to pull out of his waistband as he made it to the back end of the vehicle.

Police say it was a gun, and yes, one was recovered at the scene. Police are waiting for DNA evidence to come back, but a reported witness claims to have seen McClain throwing the weapon, a statement which was later recorded.

But even if McClain had a gun, the question is the legality of the shooting and at what point the officer felt threatened enough to shoot him from behind.

Pasadena Police Chief John Perez told Pasadena Now he is willing to have these conversations. We hope that discussion begins sooner than later.

The area where this happened is close to where two of the most serious events in recent memory occurred.

One was just up the street on North Fair Oaks Avenue, where Christopher Ballew was brutalized after he was stopped for no front plates and having tint on his car’s windows. And a few miles south, unarmed Kendrec McDade was fatally shot after fleeing from officers.

If the chasm between Black residents and police is to close, then both sides have to be held accountable during traffic stops.

I’m through asking questions about McClain’s behavior and now ready for some answers about the behavior of the two officers involved.