Contact: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com | (516) 841-1105
Courage Campaign: Alfred Olango Deserves Justice
El Cajon, CA — This morning, Alfred Olango, a father and restaurant cook from Uganda, was killed by an El Cajon police officer while responding to a call that Olango was walking in traffic. The police department and officers were aware they were responding to a “5150” when Olango was fatally shot. The name of the officer who killed him has not yet been disclosed.
Eddie Kurtz, Executive Director of Courage Campaign, issued the following statement:
“Yesterday, yet another unarmed black man was murdered by an impulsive police officer. Alfred Olango’s tragic death makes him the 217th black man killed by police this year alone.
“Olango’s murder at the hands of police is especially jarring because the officer who responded to the call knew that Olango had suffered from mental illness and that the El Cajon police department was given advance warning that he was unarmed. Despite these warnings, a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team was not called to respond to the incident, and Olango was shot and killed in front of his sister.
“Alfred Olango’s death is unacceptable. Also unacceptable is the El Cajon Police Department’s self-serving decision to release a single frame from the longer video of the encounter with Olango that supports their narrative. That’s why Courage Campaign is calling on San Diego County DA Bonnie Dumanis and the El Cajon police department to immediately release the full video of the shooting and to conduct a complete and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Alfred Olango’s death.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/09/el-cajon-police-shooting/
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