As Twitchy reported, demonstrations turned violent in El Cajon, Calif., Wednesday night following the fatal officer-involved shooting of Alfred Olango, whom police said was acting erratically and assumed a shooting stance but was found to have been unarmed and holding a vaping device instead.
Who was Alfred Olango? We're learning more about the man shot and killed by El Cajon police: https://t.co/OEBHdX1OcX pic.twitter.com/nGGHVxwO1e
— #NBC7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) September 29, 2016
NBC San Diego and the Associated Press have learned more about Olango. The 38-year-old arrived in the United States in 1991 as a refugee from Uganda, and authorities twice had tried to deport him but were unable to obtain travel documents from Olango’s home country.
BREAKING: U.S. authorities tried twice to deport unarmed black man fatally shot by police in El Cajon, California. https://t.co/nJVr0vCUuH
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 29, 2016
NBC San Diego reported Thursday that an immigration judge had ordered Olango’s deportation in 2002 following a conviction for transporting and selling drugs, but multiple attempts to obtain travel documents from Uganda were unsuccessful.
Olango again was taken into custody by immigration officials in 2009 after serving a prison term for a firearms conviction in Colorado, and again, attempts to obtain travel documents to return him to Uganda failed.
In a statement released Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Alfred Olango stopped reporting to officers in February 2015.
Though many witnesses and protesters have said Olango was having an epileptic seizure or was mentally ill, his mother said in a press conference that he was “not mental” but rather having a breakdown over the death of a close friend.
Police have not released video but have released a still frame that appears to show Olango not with his hands up but rather crouched in a shooting stance.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member