A man was shot and killed during an encounter with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, who was identified as the half-brother of Robert Fuller, a black man who was found hanging from a tree in California last week.
CBS LA reports that the Fuller family attorney identified the man, Terron Jammal Boone to be Fuller's half-brother. However, the LASD hasn’t confirmed the man’s identity.
The shooting happened on Wednesday afternoon in Rosamond. According to NPR, the incident started as a search for “a kidnap domestic assault suspect” by the LASD. “The detectives observed and positively identified a male matching the suspect's description in a vehicle,” Deputy James Nagao said in the statement.
“Detectives followed the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop,” he continued. “The suspect opened the front passenger door of the vehicle and engaged the Deputies by firing multiple rounds at them with a handgun.”
“At that time, an Officer-involved shooting occurred during which the suspect was struck several times in the upper torso,” the report added. Boone was declared dead at the scene.
A woman who was driving Boone’s vehicle was also wounded in the crossfire, though she wasn't the victim of the alleged assault. A 7-year-old girl was also found in the car and luckily wasn’t injured. There was no body-camera footage taken of the incident.
“And we’re angry,” Jeffrey Thomas, the woman’s brother, told reporters Wednesday night, per CBSLA. “We’re handling it the best way we know how, and right now, it’s in God’s hands. And I’m just glad and grateful that my sister is alive and that my niece is alive.”
Fuller’s body was discovered on June 10, across the street from Palmdale City Hall, about 20 miles south of Rosamond. While Fuller’s death was originally ruled to be a suicide, L.A. County officials retracted those findings earlier this week, following increased pressure from community members. On Monday, the LASD announced that it has launched an investigation into Fuller’s death, and will be working alongside the FBI and California Attorney General’s office.
