Questions raised in Inglewood shooting

INGLEWOOD, Calif. Police went to 38-year-old Wicks' apartment, and they said when they got there, Wicks answered the door with a gun. Police said he pointed a gun at them, at which point they opened fire, shooting and killing Wicks.

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One of the key questions is whether police were sent to the right apartment to begin with.

Police said they were responding to a domestic disturbance call, but a newly released transcript of a 911 call has caused more outrage.

In the 911 call, the dispatcher asks the caller if he is, "inside apartment number ten." The caller responds, "Yeah, I believe it is apartment number ten. I can't really tell. But I think it's the middle apartment."

The caller had some questions about exactly what apartment it was, but this was not conveyed to the officers. They were told specifically that it was apartment 10.

"I think it's the obligation of any police department, and especially the Inglewood Police Department, to be as sure, as positive and as accurate as possible in verifying addresses and locations. If that's not the case, we can see that tragedies can happen, and certainly it did happen in this case," said community activist Earl Ofari Hutchison.

The other key issue is the officer who shot Wicks was involved in another deadly shooting in May.

Family members also defended Wicks having a gun, saying he was very afraid of the neighborhood he was living in.

"From my understanding, there was a lot of negative people in that complex, and he didn't feel comfortable there. He called me when he first moved, and he said didn't really like the environment, because of the transient people living in the vacant apartment," said Austin Wicks II, father.

"And he probably was alarmed at that hour, somebody knocking on his door, so if he did go to the door with a gun, which I'm not sure, I don't believe he did, just the environment," he said.

 

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