LAPD police chief Charlie Beck says he has not seen evidence shooting was justified

HE had no gun. He was homeless. Now controversy is engulfing the LA Police department after its top cop publicly questioned whether this man should have been shot dead.

CONTROVERSY is engulfing the LA Police department after its top cop publicly questioned whether the shooting of an unarmed homeless man was justified.

LA Police chief Charlie Beck said he had yet to see evidence that justified the shooting in Venice Beach on Tuesday.

“Any time an unarmed person is shot by a Los Angeles police officer, it takes extraordinary circumstances to justify that, and I have not seen those extraordinary circumstances at this point,” Beck said.

According to CNN, Beck made the remark after watching footage of the incident.

The man who was shot was later identified locally as 29-year-old Brendon K Glenn, a homeless man who had been sleeping rough in the area.

Local community activists described the shooting as “another example of an unarmed African American being shot and killed by police for no reason”.

Najee Ali, a community activist and political director of National Action Network, commended Beck, telling reporters at the scene that it was the first time that he had heard such remarks from a Los Angeles police chief in his 25 years of activism.

“We want that officer put in jail,” he added.

LAPD chief Charlie Beck delivering a press conference about the Venice Beach shooting. Picture: CNN

And while Beck’s comments have been commended, they have also been condemned by the police union.

“It is completely irresponsible for anyone, much less the Chief of Police, to render a judgment on an incident that is in the early stages of the investigation,” Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said in a statement.

“Additionally, by making his opinion public without having all of the facts, he influences the investigation for all parties involved, including his command officers and the public,” Lally said. “We encourage everyone to reserve judgment until the investigation has run its course and the facts are collected and assessed.”

According to reports officers were called to the area after receiving a 911 call saying a man, believed to be in his late 20s, had been arguing with a bouncer who would not let him into a bar and was hassling passers-by.

Fox News reported officers spoke to the man, who began to walk away, but then came back and began struggling with someone on the sidewalk.

Officers then tried to detain him. He was alledgley shot during the struggle.

Police said the man later died at a hospital and that no weapon was recovered at the scene.

A makeshift memorial for homeless man Brendon K Glenn who was allegedly shot by LAPD on May 5,2015.

Following the incident, dozens on onlookers watched on as the forensic officers combed the scene.

In video footage of the aftermath on YouTube (warning explicit language) an unidentified, intoxicated, Australian man could not understand why the man was shot.

“They shot somebody, the police,” he said in the clip.

“I just walked across the line and the police came at me.

“And do you know what the police said to me. I said to them these guys’ mates just got shot and the police said to me ‘yeah we just shot him’ and I’m thinking, I’m from Australia, right.

“Why the f*** would you shoot anyone at all?”

The shooting is the latest controversial police-related death that has rocked the US.

Recently police officers in Baltimore shot an unarmed man in black sparking widespread protests and riots.