man killed by Inglewood police this morning as they broke up a party has been identified as Marcus Smith, 31, of Compton, by a woman who said she was the man’s fiancee.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed Smith’s identity.
Kalonna LaCount, 30, a secretary at Kaiser Permanente, said she and Smith were at a birthday party in the 800 block of South Osage Avenue when police officers showed up and told guests to disperse. LaCount said she and Smith were walking down a stairway together when Smith slipped. LaCount said she then saw Smith’s body jerk as police fired their weapons.
She said she did not see Smith brandishing a weapon, although she was not certain whether Smith was armed or owned a gun.
"He had his hands in the air," LaCount said. "The more he stumbled, the more they shot."
LaCount spoke hours after Inglewood police released a statement that there had been an officer-involved shooting on Osage Avenue. The statement said the suspect was killed and an officer injured.
A police spokesman later said that the suspect had a loaded semi-automatic handgun.
LaCount, wearing a green dress splattered with her fiancé’s blood, sat on the steps of the apartment building where the shooting occurred and wept as she recounted the moments before Smith’s death. LaCount said she and Smith had been together for 17 years and have three girls, all under age 12.
As she spoke, she turned to her brother, Taqwa LaCount, 25, and said: "He’s dead. Can you believe it? What am I going to do?"
Another witness account of the shooting came from Inglewood resident Charisma Bailey, 28, who lives at the apartment where the party was held. Bailey said party-goers were wearing masks and beads for the event’s Mardi Gras theme.
Bailey said she was standing next to the window of her second-story apartment, looking down the stairs when officers approached the property, holding flashlights and guns. "The next thing you know they’re shooting and he’s falling down the steps," she said of Smith.
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