A small group of protesters demonstrated outside Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s home in La Habra Heights Wednesday to demand that the sheriff’s department release the names of the deputies who killed two Black men in the South Los Angeles area
The protest was underway about 3 p.m. at the home in the 2100 block of El Cajonita Drive, near Las Palomas Drive, according to Deputy Eric Ortiz of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
About a dozen deputies, carrying batons, formed a skirmish line and escorted the protesters away from Villanueva’s home, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Two protesters were detained after authorities stopped their vehicle in the area, according to The Times, but the sheriff’s department could not immediately confirm.
The demonstration was organized by the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, which said the group of about 12-20 people dispersed by 5:20 p.m.
“Sheriff Villanueva ran his campaign on the promise of transparency, however he is still concealing the identities of his deputies involved in the murders of two men from our community, Dijon Kizzee and Fred Williams,” said Cliff Smith of the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police.
“We are demanding that Sheriff Villanueva fulfill his transparency promises of his campaign and stop concealing the identities of his deputies.”
A statement from the sheriff’s department was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon, but The Times reported that the sheriff’s department said it was not releasing the deputies’ names because of threats of violence against them.
Kizzee, 29, was shot Aug. 31 by two sheriff’s deputies in the unincorporated community of Westmont. The sheriff’s department contends that Kizzee had dropped a gun during the initial confrontation with deputies, then picked it up and raised it toward deputies, prompting them to open fire, hitting him 19 times.
Kizzee’s attorneys, including national civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, denounced the sheriff’s version of events and insists that Kizzee was shot with his hands in the air, then was shot repeatedly while he was on the ground.
The shooting has prompted a series of protests outside the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station, leading to three dozen arrests following clashes between demonstrators and deputies that turned violent.
Williams, 25, was fatally shot by a deputy in Willowbrook on Oct. 16. Footage released by the sheriff’s department on Oct. 30 shows him on top of a garden shed with a firearm in his hand as he jumps into the yard of another property, at which point the deputy shoots him.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department claims Williams pointed a gun at the deputy, but that allegation is not clear in the footage.