CPR 2

Currently Playing: Takar Smith

Another case was when Shameka Smith called the LAPD on January 2 to report that her estranged husband, Takar Smith, was violating a restraining order and had showed up at her apartment the previous night. Despite repeatedly telling the police that her husband and father of six children suffered from schizophrenia and was not on his medication, hours after Shameka called police, they arrived at her residence without a Mental Evaluation Unit (MEU). The LAPD created MEUs to give the veneer of “reform.” MEUs place a social worker, who is allegedly trained in “de-escalation” tactics, with a cop. In the body camera video released by the police, Smith is shown talking with police for roughly 15 minutes. During the back and forth conversation, Smith makes several incoherent statements. The police ignore his statements and chastise the mentally disturbed man to “quit playing childish games” and “act like an adult.” Smith goes into the kitchen and is followed by multiple police with guns and tasers drawn and pointed at him. After Smith picks up a butcher knife that is sitting on the kitchen counter, several police deploy their tasers and at least one cop fires a “less lethal” bean bag round. Smith drops the knife and falls on his knees. None of the police move in to secure the knife or tackle Smith. Instead they hang back and continue to tase him. Once Smith reaches for the knife again and raises it above his head, while still on his knees on the ground, at least two police officers, Joseph Zizzo and Nicolas Alejandre, fired seven shots at him. Smith immediately falls face first into a pool of his own blood. The body camera footage shows that one of the cops continues to tase Smith for roughly five seconds after he is shot. The police then let Smith bleed out on the floor for over three minutes before turning him over and lazily attempting CPR. Parts of text from WSWS