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The video starts with a man swinging his arms at LAPD outside a Los Angeles homeless shelter. An officer tackles the man to the ground, and three others try to subdue him. At least one pulls out a Taser and tries to shock the man. "Drop the gun!" a voice yells.
Seconds later, five gunshots were heard, prompting shock and screams from bystanders.
"Why did you shoot that man?" one witness yells. "Y'all got (him) Tased. Why did you y'all shoot that man?"
The fatal shooting Sunday on Los Angeles' Skid Row sparked renewed outrage online over what some consider unnecessary lethal force by cops. The shooting took place near the Union Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in a neighborhood rife with poverty.
Anthony Blackburn, the bystander who shot the video, said he started filming with his cell phone after several officers surrounded a homeless man in front of his tent.
"I had my phone out, you know, videotaping the whole thing coz we've been hearing on the news about police brutality," Blackburn told, I just wanted to film it and just make sure everything was alright. But I ended up seeing a tragedy."
Los Angeles police Commander Andrew Smith said the man was suspected of robbery. When officers tried to arrest him, he started fighting with them.
Smith said police tried to shock him with a Taser, but that didn't work. After the man reached for an officer's gun, three officers fired at him.
"I don't know what they found on this individual," Smith told. "Obviously he didn't have a firearm."
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