Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to criminally charge two L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputies for shooting and killing 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee two years ago.
Kizzee was initially approached by deputies Christian Morales and Michael Garcia in the Westmont area of South L.A. for allegedly riding a bicycle against traffic on the last day of August in 2020. Video footage shows Kizzee running away from the deputies before they catch up with him and a scuffle ensues. The sheriff's department alleges that Kizzee punched Morales and then reached for a firearm that he dropped on the ground but activists and witnesses dispute that claim.
Following Kizzee’s death, several days of protests broke out at the sheriff's station around the corner from where he was killed, resulting in activists, journalists, and legal observers being targeted by deputies in riot gear with “less-than-lethal” munitions and batons. In two years, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies killed at least three young men within a couple of blocks of the station, including Kizzee.
L.A. County Sheriff's killed 3 people: AJ Weber, Robert Avitia and Dijon Kizzee all within a couple blocks of one another in Westmont. There is a LASD station and an elementary school blocks away. This weekend, the community came together to demand justice for the victims. pic.twitter.com/6nyyms3XF8
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) September 15, 2020
In a nearly 20-page, November 10th memo reviewed by L.A. TACO and first reported by The Times on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office “concluded that Morales and Garcia reasonably believed, based on the totality of the circumstances, that force was necessary to defend against a threat of death.”