Dijon Kizzee loved riding bicycles — anything with wheels, really, his uncle Anthony Johnson recalled. As a youth, he would build go-karts and used to drive his mother crazy with his passion for mini motorcycles.
That’s why it wasn’t surprising, Johnson said, that 29-year-old Kizzee was on a bike Monday afternoon when he was flagged for an alleged vehicle code violation in a South Los Angeles neighborhood. He tried to flee and subsequently was fatally shot by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies.
The shooting has spurred anger and nightly protests in the Westmont neighborhood. Many view Kizzee as another victim of police violence against Black people amid the national public outcry over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The Sheriff’s Department hasn’t indicated what vehicle codes Kizzee allegedly violated. Officials have said deputies pursued Kizzee as he dropped his bicycle and ran. They said deputies opened fire after he “made a motion toward” a gun that fell to the ground when he dropped a jacket he had been carrying.
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