A Los Angeles County grand jury has convened in the fatal Torrance police shooting of a Black man sitting in a suspected stolen car in 2018.
The panel is considering potentially charging Officers Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon in the killing of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, a shooting that triggered months of protests by Black Lives Matter activists that spilled into Torrance City Council meetings.
Chavez and Concannon also are linked to racist and homophobic text messages sent among Torrance officers and under investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Former District Attorney Jackie Lacy previously found that the two officers acted legally and in self-defense in the Mitchell shooting. But the investigation was reopened by D.A. George Gascon and sent to special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton in 2021.
Gascon’s office declined to comment Thursday, March 23, or even confirm the grand jury proceeding.
Chavez’s attorney, Tom Yu, said Thursday that the shooting case was politically motivated and reopened by Gascon to fulfill a campaign promise.
“We look forward to defending Mr. Chavez if there are charges brought as a result of the grand jury proceeding,” Yu said.
Mitchell, 23, was shot in the parking lot of a Carson Street supermarket in Old Torrance. Officers fired three times at Mitchell, who was behind the wheel of a car that had been reported stolen. Between his legs was what appeared to be a firearm, but was actually a modified air rifle, reports said.
As officers approached the car, they told Mitchell to keep his hands on the steering wheel, but he instead moved them toward his lap, according to the previous report by prosecutors who cleared police. Officers also told Mitchell to get out of the car, but he refused, the report said.
The report concluded: “Based on Mitchell’s failure to follow the officers’ directions, his continued efforts to conceal the object in his lap, the physical…
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