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 On Thursday night, some 200 demonstrators protested against the
killing of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon, marching to Phoenix police
headquarters and blocking streets, broadcaster CBS5 reported.
The Phoenix Police Department said Brisbon was sitting in a SUV
outside a convenience store on Tuesday evening, and two witnesses
told the officer the occupants of the vehicle were selling drugs.
With police forces across the country under increased scrutiny over
killing unarmed black men, Phoenix police said in a statement that
its officer called for backup, and then saw Brisbon appear to remove
something from the car's back seat.
It said the officer, a seven-year veteran of the department, gave
him several commands to show his hands, before Brisbon "placed one
or both hands in his waistband area" and fled.
The officer chased and caught up with him, it said, and during a
struggle the policeman believed he felt the handle of a gun while
holding Brisbon's hand in his pocket.
"The officer gave the suspect several commands to get on the ground
but he refused to comply, yelling profanities at the officer," the
police department said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
At that point, both men stumbled into an opened apartment unit, it
said, adding that the officer was unable to keep a grip on the
suspect's hand.
"Fearing Brisbon had a gun in his pocket the officer fired two
rounds striking Brisbon in the torso," it said.
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The police department said back-up officers arrived after the
shooting, and while they and members of the fire department treated
Brisbon, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said Brisbon was carrying oxycodone pills, and that a
semi-automatic handgun and a jar of what is believed to be marijuana
were found in the SUV. The 30-year-old officer was not injured,
police added in the statement.
The shooting in Phoenix comes at a time of tension between law
enforcement officers and the communities in which they operate. Two
grand jury decisions not to indict officers who killed unarmed black
men in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City have triggered
protests throughout the United States.
(Reporting by Daniel Wallis in Denver; Additional reporting by
Curtis Skinner; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Robert Birsel)
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