Attorney questions gunshot wound in unarmed man’s back

LOS ANGELES – The Latest on the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

The attorney for the family of an unarmed man fatally shot by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy is questioning how one of two gunshot wounds was in the man’s upper back.

Attorney Brian Dunn asked Thursday why one bullet hit 27-year-old Donnell Thompson Jr. in the back even though police say he was charging officers when he was shot.

Sheriff’s Lt. John Corina says the wound was in Thompson’s shoulder blade because of the firing angle of the deputy who shot him — up to 10 feet above Thompson in the turret of an armoured car. The other bullet hit Thompson in the left chest above the heart.

The deputy fatally shot Thompson July 28 in Compton. Deputies suspected at the time that Thompson had been involved in an earlier carjacking and shootout with police and feared that he was armed when he ran toward them.

The department acknowledged Tuesday that Thompson was not involved with the carjacking or shootout.