Police Arrest 911 Caller After An Innocent Black Suspect Is Shot & Killed

19-year-old Kendrec McDade

A black 19-year-old man was shot and killed because “he was at the wrong place at the wrong time”.

 When officers responded to the scene, they shot Kendrec McDade, a 19-year-old black man from the nearby city of Azusa, who died of his injuries at a local hospital.

But on Wednesday, the Pasadena police announced that they had arrested the man who made the 911 call, Oscar Carrillo, on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, because he lied to the police about the suspect being armed.

Lt. Phlunte Riddle said the police now believe that neither Mr. McDade nor his 17-year-old companion was armed. But when officers saw Mr. McDade reach for his waistband, she said, they believed that he was armed and that “their lives were in jeopardy.”“Mr. Carrillo is partly responsible for creating that situation,” Lieutenant Riddle said.

Mr. McDade’s killing, less than a month after the fatal shooting of the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida, has stoked racial tensions in Pasadena, the city east of Los Angeles known for its annual Rose Parade. Local black leaders said the event highlights the need for reforms in the Pasadena Police Department, and have called for the Department of Justice to investigate.

“With African-American teens, the perception is that they are all gangbangers, or they are all packing,” said Joe Brown, president of the Pasadena chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. “It does increase the instances of shoot-to-kill with law enforcement, and Pasadena is no exception.”

Lieutenant Riddle said Mr. McDade was running from the officers when they saw him reach for his waistband. Believing he was armed, both officers discharged their weapons from “very close proximity.”

Another officer arrested the 17-year-old, who admitted they had stolen the backpack, Lieutenant Riddle said. The teenager, whose name has not been released by the police, has since been charged with burglary, grand theft and failure to register as a gang member, a condition of his parole, the police said.

But after days of searching without success for the guns, police reinterviewed Mr. Carrillo, who admitted that he had lied to officers about the weapons in hope that they would respond faster.

A lawyer for Mr. McDade’s parents, Caree Harper, said that the account her clients have gotten from the police since the shooting has been inconsistent. First, she said, the chief told them that the officers had fired 10 bullets. Then he revised the number to 8, Ms. Harper said.

She demanded that a full account of the shooting be made public, and said her clients had not ruled out a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.