Mentally Ill Black Man Shot & Killed by Long Beach Police: Family Plans Lawsuit

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Long Beach police won't ID officers in shooting
LONG BEACH The family of a terminally ill, mentally disabled man who was fatally shot during an altercation with Long Beach police officers said Tuesday they will sue the Police Department.  Roketi Su'e, 46, was killed Saturday in the 3400 block of 67th Way as he was walking home from a birthday party. Two officers responded to the area at 7 p.m. on reports of a man behaving erratically, according to Nancy Pratt of the Long Beach Police Department. Su'e resisted arrest, so officers used a Taser on him and struck him with batons, but he appeared unfazed, causing officers to think he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, she said. When Su'e tried to take one of the batons away from the officers, they shot him multiple times in the upper torso, she said. Family members said Su'e, who had a bipolar disorder and was dying of lung cancer, was unarmed and upset because he had had a fight with his girlfriend. Witnesses insist Su'e was unarmed and shot in the back as he lay face-down on the sidewalk.

"What happened was an assassination," his girlfriend, Kathryn Noleb said. "It wasn't help. It wasn't help for him. It wasn't help for the community. It's not help."  Billy Moses, who said he witnessed the shooting, said officers shot the man six times. "If you're going to shoot someone six times, wouldn't one bullet in the back be enough?" he said.

Civil rights activists have spoke out against the shooting and called on the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate.

Police will not identify two officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old Long Beach man over the weekend, authorities said Wednesday. On Wednesday, Blair cited a state Supreme Court ruling that noted officers' names and other personnel information could be withheld from the public if that information could jeopardize officer safety.

In addition to the complaints voiced by Su'e's family, community members and some civil-rights groups have also questioned the LBPD's history of dealing with mentally ill individuals, noting at least three other fatal officer-involved shootings in the past six years.

Su'e's family told the Press-Telegram he was diagnosed with schizophrenia two years ago and had terminal lung cancer. Due to his cancer, the 5-foot-10 Samoan-American weighed about 120 pounds at the time of the shooting, they said.[MORE]