Homeless Man Killed by LA Police Thought to Be Immigrant from Cameroon
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this week killed — in an incident caught on videotape — a homeless person who is believed to be an immigrant from Cameroon and also believed to have had a history of mental issues.
The homeless man was shot dead on LA’s skid row Sunday. Police claim that a struggle for an officer’s gun triggered the shooting. But many of the people who knew the man who went by the nickname “Africa” were mourning his death – and expressing anger over it. On Monday morning, a tent stood near a tree where two bouquets and two candles formed a makeshift memorial. “RIP ‘Cameroon’ rest in peace Africa brother” a cardboard sign reads. People who knew the homeless man said he told them he was from the African nation.
The details surrounding the victim remain hazy. According to VICE,
“[a]ccording to multiple sources, the victim was about 28 years old. He was an immigrant from Cameroon who spoke English with a heavy accent, spoke French fluently, and was a profoundly religious man. In the words of a man named `Juju’ who said he was his closest friend on Skid Row, Cameroon was simply grateful to be in the United States.”
In an article looking at Moncrieffe v. Holder (2013), a removal case decided by the Supreme Court that involved a small time marijuana conviction of a Black immigrant from Jamaica, I analyzed how Black immigrants to the United States can at times experience the same kinds of treatment by police that African American citizens do.
UPDATE (March 6): Federal officials later confirmed that the homeless man who was killed, Charley Leundeu Keunang, 43, was from Cameroon. Living under a stolen identity of a French national that was used to secure a French passport, he was the subject of a removal order because of a bank robbery conviction.
KJ