by Concerned Citizens of Echo Park
Friday, Mar. 29, 2013 at 10:48 AM
On Saturday, March 30th at noon, community members and the family of David Martinez will gather at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue to hold a press conference and vigil to speak out against the shooting of Martinez by Rampart Area Patrol Officers.
On Saturday, March 30th at noon, community members and the family of David Martinez will gather at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue to hold a press conference and vigil to speak out against the shooting of Martinez by Rampart Area Patrol Officers. Witnesses of the shooting and family members of Martinez will offer their account of the event in which LAPD open fire on an un-armed man out getting tacos with his family and friends.
At around 12:20am on Tuesday, March 19th, police shot Martinez (also known as 'Dizzy') in the head at the northwest corner of Sunset and Echo Park. He has been in intensive care since the shooting, and it is not clear if he will survive from the gunshot wounds. The LAPD have released a statement claiming that Martinez was carrying a weapon that he pointed at officers. They admit that they were unable to recover a weapon from the scene. Family members, present at the shooting, claim that police officers approached Martinez as he waited for his wife to return from a taco truck and open fire on him after a brief verbal exchange. Police could not recover a weapon because Martinez was un-armed.
Community members have constructed a large Get Well card for Martinez at the corner where he was shot. Martinez’s family and the wider Echo Park neighborhood condemn this extreme abuse of power by the LAPD and the long history of racist police violence in Los Angeles.