Citizens Collect Signatures, Demand For State Probe of Anaheim PD

From [HERE] and [HERE] Orange County activists have collected approximately 17,000 signatures for a petition demanding the State Attorney General conduct a full investigation into the Anaheim Police Department following two deadly shootings and subsequently violent protests. KCAL9′s Louisa Hodge reports the signatures collected by Presente.org were set to be handed over to the California State Attorney General Kamala Harris on Monday. On Sunday, more than 200 people protested recent officer-involved shootings in Anaheim and at times threatened to take their demonstration to Disneyland.

Police arrested nine people, including one woman accused of assaulting two people at a gas station. Sunday’s demonstration was one of several protests held last week in reaction to the fatal shootings of two men by Anaheim police.

Family Wants Autopsy

The family of an unarmed man who was fatally shot by Anaheim police is seeking an independent autopsy of his body. The Orange County Register reported Monday that the family of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz wants to determine where he was shot for legal purposes. The police union says Diaz, a known gang member, ran from officers and was holding some kind of object in front of his waist with both hands that officers feared was a gun. Witnesses have said that Diaz was shot in the back of the leg and then in the back of the head after he fell. [MORE] 

On July 21, Manuel Diaz  was approached by officers around 4 p.m. in the 600 block of North Anna Drive. Police said Diaz and his two companions ran off, but an officer caught up to Diaz and shot him when he reportedly threw an unidentified object.

However, no weapons were found at the scene and Diaz died at a hospital several hours later.

On July 22, Anaheim police fatally shot Joel Mathew Acevedo at the end of a stolen-car pursuit. Acevedo, 21, who is also described as a gang member, allegedly fired at officers before he was fatally shot.

But despite growing outrage over three police shootings in the past nine days, KNX 1070′s Jon Baird reports Anaheim Police Chief John Welter has no plans to step down