The Gambia has demanded a “credible” investigation after the son of a diplomat was shot dead by US police.<\/p>\n
Thirty-nine-year-old Momodou Lamin Sisay was shot after a car chase in Georgia on Friday morning, according to the\u00a0preliminary investigation by Georgia Bureau of Investigation<\/a>\u00a0(GBI).<\/p>\n He was pronounced dead on the scene. The police said he had produced a gun.<\/p>\n The shooting comes amid widespread protests after a US police officer killed George Floyd last week.<\/p>\n Georgia investigators said that at approximately 03:49 in the morning, a police officer in Snellville, Georgia attempted to stop his vehicle but the vehicle did not stop, and a pursuit ensued.<\/p>\n “Officers approached the vehicle and gave verbal commands for the driver to show his hands. The driver did not comply… the driver pointed a handgun at the officers. Officers fired at the driver and pulled back to take cover behind their patrol vehicles,” investigators said.<\/p>\n A Swat team was called and “during the standoff, the driver pointed his weapon and fired at the SWAT officers. One GCPD SWAT officer fired his weapon”, they added.<\/p>\n Lare Sisay, the victim’s father who works at the United Nations, said the police did not do enough to peacefully resolve the situation, and also disputed that he had a gun, according to local media.<\/p>\n “We will do an independent autopsy and we want to get a private investigator to investigate the circumstances of his death and if necessary hire a lawyer to sue the Georgia state police. We’re not going to let it go,” The Point newspaper quotes him as saying.<\/p>\n On Tuesday The Gambia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked its embassy in Washington DC to “engage the relevant US authorities including the State Department to seek transparent, credible and objective investigation”.<\/p>\n Mr Sisay’s name has been used in social media posts this week supporting the campaign against US police brutality against black people.<\/p>\n Protests have been taking place across the US following the death of Mr Floyd, an African-American man, who died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes.<\/p>\n Mr Chauvin has been sacked from the police force and charged with murder.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happened to Sisay?<\/h2>\n