KTLA

Police Commission Rules LAPD Officer Justified in Fatal Shooting of 14-Year-Old in Boyle Heights

The Los Angeles Police Commission ruled Tuesday that officers were justified in firing their guns in two separate shootings, including a controversial encounter in Boyle Heights that left a 14-year-old boy dead.

Teresa Dominguez holds a photo of her son, 14-year-old Jesse Romero, next to attorney Humberto Guizar as they hold a news conference to discuss a federal lawsuit filed against the city in the shooting death on June 23, 2017. (Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

In a 3-1 vote, the civilian panel determined that last summer’s shooting of Jesse Romero fell within the LAPD’s rules for using deadly force. The board, however, unanimously faulted one officer’s tactics leading up to the shooting.

The commissioners unanimously decided that another officer was justified in shooting Kenney Watkins, an 18-year-old fatally wounded in an incident in South L.A.

After the decisions were announced, Teresa Dominguez, Jesse’s mother, frowned as she stood in the lobby of the LAPD’s downtown headquarters. Dominguez wore a T-shirt with her son’s picture. “Justicia para Jesse Romero,” it read.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.

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