LOS ANGELES — Supporters of the family of a man shot dead by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Northridge on New Year’s Eve plan to take their concerns to the Los Angeles Police Commission Tuesday.
Keith Porter Jr., 43, was fatally shot shortly after 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31 in the 17700 block of Roscoe Boulevard by an unidentified ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying the agent “bravely responded to an active shooter situation” and “exchanged gunfire with” Porter.
The LAPD was continuing to investigate the shooting of Porter and now his family would like to loop in the five-member commission, which sets policies and oversees LAPD operations, working with the police chief.
Local activists said Porter was not an active shooter, although he was firing a weapon into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve — a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement officials.
The shooting has led to increased criticism of the ICE presence in the city, and calls for a thorough investigation and the release of the name of the agent who shot Porter.
Discussion of Porter’s death was renewed following Wednesday morning’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, in Minneapolis by an ICE agent who fired into her moving Honda Pilot SUV during an immigration operation.
During Friday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, several members discussed Good’s shooting, with Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez saying Porter’s death should not be forgotten.
Porter’s mother, Franceola Armstrong, spoke to the council and described her son as a man with a wonderful soul and big heart.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Armstrong said. “He was on his way back. He didn’t even get to pop the champagne. He didn’t get to say goodbye. I just want to touch my baby one last time, kiss his face and hold him. I don’t have him. His life was snatched from us. Lord, please, I just wish you could get justice for my child.”
Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope and one of the vigil’s organizers, said last week the shootings of Renee Good on Wednesday and Porter on New Year’s Eve “are not isolated incidents.”
“They reflect a dangerous pattern of excessive force, poor judgment and a lack of accountability that is costing innocent people their lives,” Ali said in a statement. “We are coming together to mourn, to demand truth and to call for justice.”
Federal officials said an ICE agent fatally shot Good in self-defense, and they accused her of trying to “weaponize” her vehicle and run over law enforcement officers after interfering with an immigration-enforcement operation. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s actions an “act of domestic terrorism” and part of an escalating trend of assaults and attempted attacks on immigration agents nationwide. She said an ICE agent was injured by Good’s vehicle and treated at a hospital.