LOS ANGELES — A man fatally shot by a California Highway Patrol officer during a struggle on a freeway that was captured on video was a 34-year-old Los Angeles man, officials said Tuesday.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said Jesse Dominguez’s cause of death had not been officially determined as of Sunday afternoon.
According to the CHP, Dominguez was walking in the westbound lanes of Interstate 105 in southern LA County. An officer tried to convince the man to get off the highway, but he refused, leading to a fight, authorities said. Dominguez had a Taser with him that he used on the officer, CHP said.
“After the pedestrian used the weapon against the officer, and fearing for his safety, the officer fired his service weapon,” the statement said.
Dominguez was pronounced dead at a hospital. The CHP referred media inquiries to the attorney general’s office. Neither department provided the officer’s name or additional details about the altercation, including how many shots were fired and whether the CHP has a specific protocol for dealing with someone wandering on the highway.
A minute-long video recorded by a bystander and posted to social media begins with an officer on top of Dominguez as the two struggle in the middle of a closed stretch of highway. It was not clear who filmed the original video.
As they struggle, a shot is fired and the officer suddenly jumps to his feet while the other man lies limp on the sidewalk. The officer immediately fires at least four shots at the lying man, the video shows. Throughout the remainder of the clip, the officer keeps his gun drawn as the man lies motionless.
The attorney general’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, is investigating the shooting in accordance with its policy of reviewing incidents in which the deceased did not have a deadly weapon. A stun gun is not considered a deadly weapon under state law.
Dominguez’s family told the Los Angeles Times that he was an aspiring actor who they believe was likely experiencing a mental episode or drug-induced crisis when he was killed. He struggled with substance abuse, a serious mental illness and homelessness, the newspaper reported.
His family said Dominguez carried a Taser for protection after threats from other residents of the sober living facility near the highway where he was staying, the Times reported.
‘I don’t know why the officer thought he was participating. If someone is walking on the highway, something is wrong. They are in a mental health crisis or something else is going on,” Akasha Dominguez, his stepmother, told the newspaper.
Highway patrol officers are not required to wear body cameras, but the department uses in-car cameras.
David Dusenbury, a retired deputy chief of police in Long Beach, California, called the video clip “extremely disturbing” and said he hoped more footage exists to provide additional context.
Based on reviewing the video, he said the shooting did not appear to be a justified use of force, in part because Dominguez was on the ground and the officer was only a few feet away when he “shot directly at the man.”
“I don’t like what I saw, I really don’t like it,” Dusenbury told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Dusenbury said the officer should have had backup, at least to close the highway, and waited to approach Dominguez carefully and from a distance with another officer.
“If they are wandering in the lanes, you have to conclude that there is something wrong with this person,” such as intoxication or mental health problems, he said.
The California Association of Highway Patrolmen, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed.