Alfred Olango: Mentally ill man was holding a vape pen when officers fatally shot him
The US Justice Department has joined the investigation into the shooting
Alfred Olango, the mentally ill black man who was fatally shot by El Cajon police, was holding a vape pen while he was shot by an officer, authorities announced on Wednesday.
This morning protesters lined up outside the city’s police department calling for a federal investigation into the police shooting. The US Justice Department answered the call late Wednesday night announcing that they joined the investigation.
Mr Olango's sister can be heard in cellphone footage telling officers that she called to get her brother help. She says she should have called a crisis communication team.
“Don’t you guys have a crisis communication team to talk to somebody mentally sick?” she asks. “Why couldn’t you tase him? Why, why, why, why?”
The shooting is just the latest incident that fuels the protests against the fatal police shootings of unarmed black men in the US. It also underscores the fact that police across the states kill a person with a mental illness every 36 hours.