Attorneys Say Independent Autopsy Reveals Officers Shot Murdered Bicyclist Dijon Kizzee 15 Times

(The AEGIS Alliance) – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Attorneys for aged 29 Dijon Kizzee’s family said sheriff’s deputies shot him 15 times and argued that he didn’t point a gun at officers before the bicyclist was killed by the gunshots last month in South Los Angeles.

Attorney Carl Douglas said at a Tuesday news conference that Kizzee was already on the ground when deputies fired some of those gunshots and that he wasn’t immediately killed by the gunfire. Douglas displayed a body diagram that showed the entry points of each wound that was according to an independent autopsy that Kizzee’s family commissioned, the L.A. Times reported.

Douglas suggested that the deputies didn’t give Kizzee proper medical aid in those critical moments on August 31 before Kizzee bled to death.

“What this shows is he was alive and breathing and writhing in pain when the officers continued to fire their guns,” Douglas said.

Kizzee’s family members watched and wore black facemasks that stated, “Justice for Dijon Kizzee.”

The two deputies have been identified as a supervisor and his trainee that were involved in the Westmont neighborhood shooting that happened in the 1200 blocks of West 109th Place. Deputies alleged that Kizzee was in violation of vehicle codes when he was riding his bike but previously declined to say what the code violations were.

Photo: Shaneika Hall, a cousin of Dijon Kizzee, whose image is on her mask, cries during a news conference Tuesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Witnesses at the scene said Kizzee didn’t have anything in his hands at the time he was shot, but Douglas didn’t identify the witnesses. Douglas said deputies didn’t give any warnings to Kizzee or try to deescalate the situation.

There were national attention and protests erupted last week after Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other sheriff’s officials spoke at a news conference and talked about new details that led up to the shooting, according to the L.A. Times.

The officials said Kizzee was on the wrong side of the road when he was riding his bike when two South L.A. station deputies stopped him. Kizzee turned around and faced deputies, then dropped his bike onto the sidewalk and started to run, Captain Kent Wegener said.

Wegener said that’s when a deputy caught up to Kizzee who lifted his arms up while holding clothes in both hands and then punched a deputy in his face, following by a pistol dropping to the ground.

“He bends over, reaches, picks up the gun and is shot as he stands with the gun in hand. You will see that the deputy struggling with Kizzee does not arm himself until Kizzee bends down to pick up the gun he dropped,” Wegener stated.

Wegener’s story conflicts with previous versions of the events in some ways. Previously, Sheriff’s officials said that the shooting happened after Kizzee’s gun dropped to the ground. The following day the Sheriff’s Department said Kizzee “made a motion” and reached for a gun when the shooting occurred.

If deputies claim Dijon Kizzee had a gun, where is it? Surely it’d be kept as evidence and would likely have his fingerprints on it if the gun does exist.

Photo: Debra Ray, left, Dijon Kizzee’s aunt, cries in the arms of attorney Benjamin Crump during a news conference Tuesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.