Diante Yarber: Police kill black father with barrage of bullets in Walmart parking lot

Source: The Guardian

Diante Yarber: Police kill black father with barrage of bullets in Walmart parking lot

The killing of the 26-year-old, who is believed to have been unarmed, is being called a brutal case of excessive police force

Sam Levin in San Francisco
Tue 17 Apr 2018 12.00 BST

California police fired what sounded like more than 30 bullets at a packed car in a shopping store parking lot, killing a black father of three and injuring a young woman in the latest US law enforcement shooting to spark backlash.

Police in Barstow, two hours outside of Los Angeles, killed 26-year-old Diante Yarber, who was believed to be unarmed and was driving his cousin and friends to a local Walmart on the morning of 5 April. Police have alleged that Yarber was “wanted for questioning” in a stolen vehicle case and that he “accelerated” the car towards officers when they tried to stop him, but his family and their attorney argued that the young father posed no threat and should not have been treated as a suspect in the first place.

“The police took him away for no reason,” said Brittany Chandler, the mother of Yarber’s 19-month-old daughter, Leilani. “The police should be held accountable for this … They are sick people for them to be able to shoot someone down in broad daylight.”

The shooting happened weeks after police in northern California killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed father who was standing in his family’s back yard. Though Yarber’s killing has not prompted massive rallies, both shootings have shone a harsh light on the way police continue to aggressively use lethal force in black communities, even in a liberal state where the Black Lives Matter movement has long protested against police violence and racism.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/17/diante-yarber-police-fatal-shooting-barstow-california