Shot in the back by a policeman during a party at the La Brea Pitch Lake, Don King's blood flowed for two hours while people wined and feted around him.
By Richard CharanKing, 21, was shot twice while handcuffed and running.
He was trying to escape arrest for smashing a bottle on the head of a policeman, who had tried to arrest a friend during Lake Splash, a yearly celebration involving a talent competition, alcohol and music.
King was arrested four times before and released from jail three months ago on a robbery charge.
His sister, Dinisha King, 20, said her brother had reformed his life since his baptism into the Spiritual Baptist faith two months ago. King, of Chin Kee Fat Avenue, Sobo Village, lived with a girlfriend whose former lover was a lawman.
Witnesses to the murder claimed that King was liming with a group of teen friends around a cooler filled with booze, when five police officers, in plain clothes, approached and asked for ice.
One of King's friends is said to have answered the officers in a "rude boy style" and was slapped. The friend slapped the police officer and a fight started. King smashed a bottle on the head of PC Baptiste and ran.
He was charged by a police constable and according to a witness "the policeman fire a warning shot, then shoot Don in the foot, then stopped and aimed shooting the man in he back".
The officers involved in the incident claimed they had gone to arrest King's friends for smoking marijuana when he hit PC Baptiste and pulled a knife. The police reported that they subdued and handcuffed King, and fired two shots into the air when the crowd began closing in on them. A third "warning shot" the police said, accidentally hit King, while he was running away.
Several people told the Express that King's sister and uncles were beaten with batons when they tried getting close to the bleeding King who could be heard screaming, "I can't breathe, somebody carry me hospital."
Police declined to say why it too almost two hours to move King.
The injured officer was admitted to the San Fernando General Hospital.
Ag ASP Valdez is spearheading investigations.
