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sometimes that gang life will get you caught up
By Associated Press,
ANAHEIM, Calif. ? After two nights of angry, violent and fiery clashes with police over the shooting death of an unarmed man, residents in a working-class, Anaheim neighborhood gathered Monday around a makeshift shrine of pink daisies, candles and beer bottles to remember him as a friendly guy.
Quiet had returned to the apartment complex a few miles from Disneyland, but many people in the largely Hispanic community wondered aloud what would make police fire on a man who authorities said was a gang member but didn?t have a gun or appear to be committing a crime in broad daylight in a fenced-in-section of yard.
Jose Gallardo, 30, said was chatting with Manuel Diaz in an alley behind the complex on Saturday afternoon just a few minutes before he saw an unmarked police car pull up carrying two officers.
Gallardo said he stayed away to avoid drawing attention from police until he heard two shots and went running.
?He was laying there, dead,? Gallardo said, adding that he saw bullet marks in his friend?s lower back and neck. ?They were searching him ? I was like, why are you searching him? He?s dead right there.?
The death of 25-year-old Diaz sparked two nights of protests. On Saturday, angry demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at officers who were securing the scene for investigators and police responded by firing bean bags and pepper balls at the crowd.
The next morning, protesters stormed a news conference at police headquarters. Later that night, demonstrators set fire to a trash bin and pushed it into the street outside the apartment complex, which was still strewn with litter early Monday from the unrest.
Police Chief John Welter said the shooting occurred after two officers approached three men who were acting suspiciously in an alleyway before running away. One of the officers chased Diaz to the front of the apartment complex, where the shooting occurred.
Welter would not say what led the officer to shoot Diaz, who authorities say was a known gang member. Under standard procedure, both officers were placed on paid leave pending an investigation.
?That area is a known gang neighborhood,? police Sgt. Bob Dunn told reporters. ?There has been an increase in gang violence in and around that neighborhood. And we have been recently taking more weapons out of that neighborhood.?
Another deadly shooting involving Anaheim police occurred late Sunday after anti-gang officers spotted a gang member in a stolen sport utility vehicle. A brief pursuit ended when three people jumped from the SUV and ran, authorities said.
Both incidents were under investigation by the county?s district attorney office, which asked witnesses to come forward with any information or video footage of Saturday?s shooting.
Online court records show Diaz was convicted last year of drug possession, and three years earlier of possessing a firearm on school grounds and being a member of a criminal street gang.
On Monday, residents remembered him as a young man who was friendly to people in the neighborhood. Several neighbors stopped to read posters affixed to a fence near the spot where Diaz was shot. The signs read, ?another person dead? and ?stop killing, start protecting.?