Photo: GoFundMe
The mother of Keith Porter Jr., the 43-year-old Los Angeles man fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent, is calling for justice and accountability following his killing on New Year's Eve, per Fox LA.
Porter was shot and killed at roughly 10:30 p.m. on December 31 at his Northridge apartment complex. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Porter was firing celebratory shots into the air with an AR-15-style rifle when an off-duty ICE agent who lived in the complex heard the gunfire and confronted him. Authorities haven't detailed what happened next or what prompted the agent to open fire. Porter died on the scene.
The Department of Homeland Security said the agent "bravely responded to an active shooter situation" and "exchanged gunfire" with Porter. No criminal charges have been filed against the agent.
Family members and community leaders strongly dispute that Porter posed a threat.
“He was a great Black man. He was a girl dad,” Porter's cousin, Jsane Tyler, said.
During a Los Angeles City Council meeting on Friday (January 9), Porter’s mother, Franceola Armstrong, described her son as a kind and loving father.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Armstrong said. “He didn’t even get to pop the champagne. He didn’t get to say goodbye. His life was snatched from us.”
Joseph Williams of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles also criticized the lack of accountability.
“The fact that Keith Porter’s murderer was not arrested and was allowed to give up his service weapon that night is unacceptable,” Williams said.
Calls for accountability come in the wake of the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, in Minneapolis on Wednesday (January 7). Protests have since erupted in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and other cities across the nation. Porter’s relatives are set to join civil rights leaders at a candlelight vigil in Carson Park on Saturday (January 17) as calls grow for independent investigations into both ICE-related shootings.
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