A Southern California teenager who was fatally shot while handcuffed by police last Wednesday was armed during the incident, a police spokesperson said Monday. The suspect, later identified as Lamon Khiry Haslip, 18, died Friday night.
Haslip’s friends and neighbors, including Pastor Caleb Henderson, have admitted that Haslip was a gang member, but contest the way in which he was killed. “No one should be shot, handcuffed with hands behind their back,” Henderson said.
Byttany Haines and her boyfriend Daniel Aguilar said they saw the deadly incident up close. “He didn’t move; he wasn’t screaming; he didn’t try to resist; he was handcuffed,” Aguilar said.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s office told NBC4 that a deputy chased down and arrested Haslip while responding to a “man with a gun” call. When backup arrived, the office said Haslip “rolled over” and revealed a gun. Haines said that’s when deputies started screaming for the teen to “get down.”
“And you hear one shot and he doesn’t move after that, you know he’s dead,” Haines said. “I started screaming, I cried and I just kept yelling, ‘Call the news, you guys can’t just do that to people.'”