The unarmed man who was fatally shot by sheriffs deputies in Hawaiian Gardens Sunday night was allegedly reaching for the officer’s gun when he was shot.
Even though the family’s lawyer says he was 20 feet away.
According to the LA Times, 42-year old Johnny Ray Anderson was working on his bike when deputies arrived in response to a prowler call, as well as an earlier report that gang members were smoking crack in a vacant house.
His wife explained that he ran from the deputies because the couple was living illegally in an abandoned house, and he was on a gang injunction list.
Hopefully, forensics will determine who is telling the truth.
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Race leader Tony Martin may have crashed out of the Tour de France on Thursday, as he limped across the finish line with a broken collarbone; no word on the condition of reigning champ Vincenzo Nibali, who was taken down by Martin’s crash.
Wednesday was another wet, crashed-filled day at the Tour, but the leading contenders managed to finish safely, although Australia’s Orica-GreenEdge team is on life support. “Break a leg” means good luck in the theater; in bike racing, not so much, as New Zealand’s Jack Bauer learned the hard way.
A photography website offers advice on how to shoot bike racing events like the Tour de France. Although you evidently need to be there in person, not just watching on TV.
Just in time for the TdF, Cycling Weekly looks at the seven best pro cycling temper tantrums.
And former All-American swimmer Hannah Ross has made a rapid rise in women’s pro cycling.
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Local
Downtown News says bikeshare has huge potential in DTLA, though we have reason to be skeptical. Tell me about it.
Flying Pigeon finds a relaxing and semi-historic North East Passage from NELA to Pasadena. Now if I could just find a non-stressful route from Hollywood to the LA River.
Yo! Venice says new city laws targeting the homeless could make it illegal to lock your bike to a city-owned rack.
Santa Monica Spoke is joining Spinlister this Saturday for the 2nd Annual Tour de Slurp, a 10-mile ride with stops at five 7-11s for the company’s Free Slurpee Day.
State
Los Alamitos Blvd could get safe bike and pedestrian access in the Mayberry of Orange County.
After a woman riding a handcycle was killed in Indio in January, the company that made her bike donated a new one to a disabled vet; now he’s helping other people with disabilities learn to ride.
Menlo Park installs bike lanes before building sidewalks. Then is somehow surprised by near-collisions between cyclists and pedestrians forced to walk in them.
Morgan Hill ends its experiment with complete streets due to a pending construction project; the city council will decide next month whether to make the bike lanes permanent.
National
Momentum Magazine offers six reasons why bikes are good for business and why business owners should support their two-wheeled customers.
Smart idea. A Portland high school is opening a bike co-op to engage at-risk kids to help keep them in school.
Bike Portland looks at what may one day be “the single most important hub of bicycling in the United States.”
My bike-friendly hometown seems to be getting less safe for cyclists; no word on whether the recent increase in fatal bicycling crashes could be due to an increase in ridership, however. Meanwhile, the 18-year old driver who killed a cyclist by swerving into a bike lane to avoid hitting a boat trailer — and possibly dozed off behind the wheel — faces a measly misdemeanor.
It’s not just cities. Even Indiana’s Purdue University will have bikeshare before LA does.
An Ohio man gets three years for killing his bike-riding neighbor with a single punch as the man rode away following a dispute.
Kentucky cyclist Cherokee Schill was ticketed for riding in the traffic lane, while another man may have lost his life because he didn’t.
If you’re planning to participate in Boston’s World Naked Bike Ride, please don’t use one of the city’s bikeshare bikes. I’d kind of hope that would go without saying.
Caught on video: Philadelphia cops give a black bike rider a serious beatdown, tasing him as he cries out for his grandma — apparently for the crime of talking to the wrong people and riding the wrong way on a one-way street.
A college study suggests the reason women are using New York’s Citi Bike bikeshare less than men goes back to not feeling safe on the streets, and that more protected bikeways could be the answer. No wait, a Toronto writer says it’s the sweat, so put pretty pink streamers on the bikes.
International
The Mounties may not always get their man, but they did help an Aussie tourist recover his stolen bike.
A group of Winnipeg city councilors take out an ad campaign decrying bike lanes as the end of all that’s good and holy in the city.
A London collision victim is just the latest to have his bike stolen by heartless thieves while he was being treated for his injuries; London bike-jackings are on the rise, as well.
Caught on video: A Welsh bike rider somehow stays upright after being clipped by a driver who undertook him, breaking off the car’s wing mirror in the process. NSFW? The story warns of strong language; however, the rider’s accent makes most of it incomprehensible to American ears, anyway.
Paris now allows bike riders to go through red lights on T-intersections, something that remains common, but illegal, here.
Famed Swiss chef Philippe Rochat died while bicycling with friends, most likely from natural causes; his restaurant had a rare three Michelin star rating for a 15-year period.
A writer for the Guardian struggles with a classic Gran Fondo through Italy’s South Tyrol region, while HuffPo celebrates Christmas in July with a reminiscence about cycling the Appian Way over the holidays.
Fewer cyclists are being ticketed for riding without lights in The Netherlands; not because more riders are using them, but because police have better things to do other priorities.
Finally…
When you’ve just stolen a bike while carrying two baggies of coke, maybe you should trying riding it instead of walking. If you’re going to just walk away from a collision after hitting a bike rider, don’t leave your ID behind in the car.
And when you’re an elected official, it’s probably not the best idea to flip off a group of riders after knocking two of them off their bikes.
Just a suggestion.