LA Cops May Have Killed the Wrong Guy
A 911 call raises concern that LA cops may have gone to the wrong apartment.
July 25,2008— -- INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- A transcript of a 911 call has cast doubt on whether Inglewood officers who killed a man at his front door responded to the home where a domestic dispute was reported.
Police released the transcript Thursday -- three days after Kevin Wicks allegedly opened the door of his end apartment with a gun after midnight and was shot by officers. The 911 caller told the dispatcher an argument was happening in the middle apartment -- No. 10 -- but admitted "I can't really tell," according to the transcript.
The dispatcher sent officers to the No. 10 apartment, where Wicks was shot. He was alone.
Wicks' family, friends and other Inglewood residents have questioned the official version of the shooting, with at least one family member saying officers went to the wrong apartment.
Lonnell Williams, who lives in an apartment directly across from Wicks' home, told The Associated Press on Thursday night he did not hear any type of disturbance prior to the police arriving.
According to the transcript, a neighbor told the dispatcher a man and woman were arguing but didn't seem sure where.
"I believe it is apartment number 10. I can't really tell," the caller told the dispatcher. "But I think it's the middle apartment."
In another transcript released by police, the dispatcher told the officers to go to apartment 10 but did not mention anything about a middle apartment. The officers approached Wicks' door and reported back to the dispatcher, "Shots fired, shots fired. ... We need a 11-41, man down."
A phone message left with the Police Department was not immediately returned early Friday morning.
Wicks, 38, was a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service whom friends and family called a kind, gentle man who never had a problem with police.
The officer who shot him, Brian Ragan, was placed on leave for the second time in 10 weeks. He was still under investigation for a May 11 shooting in which he and his partner fired multiple rounds at a car, killing a 19-year-old passenger.
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