In an attempt at greater transparency, the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) has released further in regard to one of the three recent officer-involved shootings that occurred in the final week of September.
On September 26, a plainclothes officer shot and killed 39-year-old Long Beach resident John Del Real while conducting a narcotics investigation near 17th & Junipero. According to the LBPD, Del Real reached for a then-unknown object—later identified to be an aluminum bat he had tucked into his waistband—and was shot after allegedly not following orders to cease movement.
Since then, the family of Del Real has threatened a lawsuit and their attorney, Brian Claypool, has not only called the shooting one of a “personal nature” but also claimed that the officer shot Del Real again once he was already on the ground, dead.
The LBPD, which called Claypool’s comments “inflammatory, completely inconsistent with the evidence, and grossly inaccurate,” has released details as to what occurred according to their records.
These details include that, in an effort to combat criminal activity taking place in the neighborhood, officers—both patrols and undercover—had made multiple arrests for “weapons charges, and possession and sales of controlled substances, including methamphetamine.”
LBPD claims the firing officer identified himself to Del Real as an officer prior to the shooting. Following the shooting, a 31-inch aluminum baseball bat was found in the suspect’s waistband.
The aluminum bat later discovered on Del Real’s person.
It was later discovered that Del Real was an admitted member of a white supremacist gang, with substantiation of this affiliation provided by multiple swastika tattoos on his body. He also has multiple priors, including arrests for domestic violence, theft, narcotics, exhibiting a deadly weapon, and parole violation.
Claypool has yet to formally respond to the LBPD.
Anyone who may have additional information should contact Long Beach Police Homicide Detectives Scott Lasch and Donald Goodman at 562-570-7244 and/or the LA County District Attorney Justice System’s Integrity Division at 213-974-3888.
Read more:
- UPDATED: Plainclothes Officer Kills Man in LBPD’s Third Officer-Involved Shooting This Week
- UPDATED: Long Beach Police Kill Man After Carson Gun Battle
- Police Shoot Man Brandishing Handgun in Belmont Shore
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