ALOS ANGELES (CNS) – Relatives of the man fatally shot by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Northridge on New Year’s Eve were joined by dozens of supporters Tuesday pressing the Los Angeles Police Department to arrest and seek charges against the agent involved.
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. Local activists and Porter’s family have disputed the description of him as an “active shooter,” although admitting he was firing a weapon into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve — a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement that could lead to people being injured or even killed by falling bullets.
Activists and some relatives of Porter attended Tuesday’s Los Angeles Police Commission meeting, calling for the agent who shot him to be identified and arrested.
“Keith was one of the most loving, kindest people on this Earth, and everyone has attested to that fact,” Porter’s cousin, Jsane Tyler, told the commission. “The only mistake that he made on New Year’s Eve was thinking that he had the right to celebrate the way many Americans have from the beginning of time. The same way my grandfather did. And we learned that behavior from the people that brought us here.
“So when are we going to press charges on this murderer? When is he going to be named? When is he going to be arrested? The night that my cousin lost his life, no procedures were followed.”
The shooting has led to increased criticism of the ICE presence in the city. Discussion of Porter’s death was renewed following last Wednesday’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.
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