Lawyer: Slain Immigrant Likely Didn’t Understand Police

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Publish Date:
August 28, 2019
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The Washington Post (AP)
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Summary

A Chinese immigrant fatally shot by a Southern California police officer as he hid behind a door during a raid on a marijuana growing operation didn’t speak English and likely didn’t understand he was being told to show his hands, lawyers for the man’s family said Wednesday in alleging the officer had no reason to open fire.

Attorneys representing the family of 49-year-old Li Xi Wang said they have filed a claim against the city of Chino for damages, a prerequisite for a lawsuit. Wang was shot July 3 while police were searching a home.

Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center and an expert on use-of-force law, said the video is “completely uninformative.”

Weisberg said he’s unable to see if Wang was doing anything that appeared threatening to the officer or if he understood the command to raise his hands.

He said it’s unclear if the officer fired because he believed he was in danger or from the “shock” of seeing Wang behind the door.

Weisberg also said while officers are not required to get an additional interpreter, they could have postponed going into the home until they had a Chinese speaker present.

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