Family seeks 'justice' in Dijon Kizzee shooting

Family members joined attorneys Tuesday responding to last week's initial report from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in the fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee.

"All I want is justice for my nephew," said Fletcher Fair, aunt of Dijon Kizee, during a press briefing.

Kizzee, 29, was killed Aug. 31 after the Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies tried to stop him for riding a bicycle in the wrong direction. Two deputies said they were unaware he had a weapon wrapped in a piece of clothing he was carrying at the time.

The deputies told investigators they fatally shot Kizzee in South Los Angeles after he picked up a handgun he’d dropped during a struggle with one of them, authorities said Thursday.

Kizzee abandoned his bike and ran away. Residents of the Westmont neighborhood helped the deputies locate him, said Capt. Kent Wegener, the head of the department’s Homicide Bureau, and video obtained by authorities shows one of the deputies run up to Kizzee as he walked on a sidewalk.

A brief struggle ensued and Kizzee dropped the clothing and the gun fell out. Authorities say he picked up the gun; the video shows him stooping down but a wall blocks a full view and no weapon can be seen.

The two deputies fired 19 times within seconds, striking Kizzee multiple times in the chest and arms and once in the back, Wegener said. The full autopsy hasn’t been completed yet.

The sheriff’s department said it released the additional information after investigators were able to interview the deputies — a trainee and his field supervisor. Their identities have not been publicly released.

The shooting has prompted a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations. Kizzee’s family has retained civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represents the families of George Floyd and Jacob Blake. Floyd was killed when a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck and Blake was left paralyzed by a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.