The decision led to outcries from about a dozen activists who are seeking the release of body-camera footage in the fatal shooting of Charly Keundeu Keunang

Los Angeles police officers were justified when they fatally shot a homeless black man on Skid Row six times, including twice in the chest, a civilian oversight panel said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles police commission issued the finding in the shooting of Charly Keundeu Keunang, after discussing it in a closed-door meeting. The commission found that one of the officer’s tactics violated policy, but it did not explain how.

The decision led to outcries from about a dozen activists in the room who have criticized the shooting and repeatedly called on police to release body-camera footage that captured it.

“We’re extremely, extremely disappointed,” activist Hamid Kahn said. “We’re not surprised because the police commission is such a rubber-stamp body. But there’s always this one flicker of hope that their own humanity will kick in and they will look at these things not to protect the police officers, but really to protect the community and speak the truth.”

Commission president Matthew Johnson said Keunang’s death “is nothing short of tragic” and that Tuesday’s decision came after an intense 11-month investigation and analysis that was deliberate and compassionate.

He said state law barred him from explaining why the commission reached the decision.

Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed confidence in the commission in a statement and said that his office was working with the LAPD to “make deadly encounters between police and citizens less frequent”.

The 1 March death of 43-year-old Keunang, known on the street as Africa, was captured on video by a bystander. The killing prompted protests and drew comparisons with the deaths of black men in other officer-involved shootings across the country.

Police chief Charlie Beck has said the shooting was justified because Keunang grabbed for a rookie police officer’s gun after ignoring commands and becoming combative. He said the officer’s gun was later found partly cocked and jammed with one round of ammunition in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon.

An autopsy showed Keunang had methamphetamines and marijuana in his system when he died.

Keunang’s family has filed a $20m lawsuit against the city and police department. Joshua Piovia-Scott, the attorney representing Keunang’s family in the lawsuit, said he was frustrated by the commission’s finding.

“It’s hard to believe that six heavily armed and trained officers and one unarmed, lone homeless man on a sunny street on a sunny day results in those officers holding the man down to the concrete and shooting him in the chest and killing him,” he said.

He added that the commission’s finding would have no effect on the lawsuit and that he was “confident that a jury in Los Angeles is going to be outraged by this”.

Keunang’s death is among several involving the LAPD that have gained national attention in the past couple of years.

Last month, Beck recommended that prosecutors file criminal charges against an officer who fatally shot an unarmed homeless man in the back in Venice on 5 May. It is the first time Beck has recommended charges against an officer who fatally shot someone while on duty. More than 100 such shootings have occurred since Beck became chief in late 2009.



