Officials: Man Killed By LAPD Was Convicted Bank Robber With Fake Name

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March 4, 2015 7:59 a.m.

Officials said Tuesday that the man whose fatal shooting by police on Los Angeles’ Skid Row had been caught on video was a convicted bank robber using a stolen identity.

The Associated Press reported that an anonymous law enforcement official identified the man as Charley Saturmin Robinet, 39. Robinet was convicted in 2000 of robbing a Wells Fargo bank branch and “pistol-whipping an employee in an effort to pay for acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse,” according to the AP. He went on to serve roughly 13 years in prison.

Authorities initially prepared to deport Robinet following that conviction. French officials then discovered that the man had actually stolen his identity from a French national and notified U.S. authorities that Robinet was an impostor, consul general Axel Cruau told the Los Angeles Times.

The man’s true identity is still unclear.

Witnesses to the shooting identified the man by his street name, “Africa.” Representatives from the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row told the AP that he had been living on the sidewalk outside their shelter for six to eight months.

Documents obtained by the AP show that the man known as Robinet also struggled with mental health issues while behind bars. Federal officials and medical staff determined the man required treatment at a psychiatric hospital for “a mental disease or defect,” according to the documents.

The fatal shooting rose to national attention Sunday night when a bystander posted video to Facebook of the confrontation between the man and LAPD officers on a Skid Row sidewalk. The video was later taken down.

While it’s not entirely clear what happened during the confrontation from the original video, authorities have said the man was killed in a struggle for an LAPD officer’s weapon.

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