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L.A. Police Shooting Victim Planned To Return To Troy

A black man killed in a shooting by Los Angeles police last week has ties to upstate New York.

29-year-old Brendon Glenn, who is from Troy, was panhandling outside a Venice bar with his dog Dozer on Tuesday night, friends said, when someone complained that he was harassing customers.

LAPD spokesman Officer Jack Richter:  "We had officers from the Pacific area of LAPD, they responded to an area known as Winward & Pacific. They responded because of a radio call of a man who was harassing passers-by. The comments on the call stated that the suspect was a transient at that time and was involved in a physical altercation with a bouncer in front of a business."

Richter says Glenn, who was homeless, resisted the officers' attempts to arrest him, which evolved into an officer-involved shooting. Glenn was taken to a hospital, where he died. "This is currently being investigated by LAPD force investigation division, and at this time we are looking for not only witnesses, but canvassing the area for video of the incident that we may use for our investigation."

The officers involved were not equipped with body cameras. Some footage has been recovered from a security camera on a nearby building. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told reporters that he had reviewed the footage and was "very concerned about the shooting." Beck said he did not see the supporting evidence that he normally would to justify an officer shooting someone who was unarmed.

Troy attorney E. Stewart Jones represents Glenn's family. He has not seen the video, but is incredulous that with all the police shootings in recent news, it could happen again.  "How can a police officer pull a gun on an unarmed, defenseless, helpless human being and shoot him, given what's happened in New York, in Baltimore, in Ferguson? It's just astonishing. You'd think the last thing they would want to do would be to shoot someone if there would be other means of dealing with the issue. I think the videotape here is going to be impossible to overcome for the police."

According to The Troy Record, city police have several minor offenses filed against Glenn dating back to when he was 17 years old, including driving offenses, criminal possession, and suspicion of larceny and assault.  The paper says Glenn grew up in Sycaway and attended both Troy High and Tamarac High. Jones said he lived with and cared for his grandmother. Friends in L.A. described Glenn as a "loving soul" and a "peacemaker." Jones calls him "a free spirit" -  "He had gone to California to chase his dreams. He had actually worked until March for three months in an internship program at a sustainable farm there but did not get the job after the three-month internship was done. He was making plans to come back here."

Jones believes the video is the key to the case. The shooting will be reviewed by the civilian Police Commission, its inspector general and the district attorney's office. "Police and the community have reached an agreement that the videotape should not be released publicly. They recognize that this is potentially explosive and that if the videotape is seen and seen close to the event itself, you're likely to have people marching and protesting and the opportunity for additional violence."

The Los Angeles police officers involved in the incident have been removed from the field.   A makeshift memorial has been erected on the site where Glenn was shot. Dozens turned out for the memorialover the weekend.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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