U.S. authorities tried twice to deport the unarmed black man fatally shot by police in a San Diego suburb, but his native Uganda refused to take him, resulting in his release.
(FOX)- Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Alfred Olango stopped reporting to officers in February 2015. Spokeswoman Virginia Kice did not know if officers tried to find him after that.
Olango arrived as a refugee in 1991 and was ordered deported in 2002 after being convicted on drug charges. He was released under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring detention of foreign nationals after six months if deportation is unlikely.
Immigration authorities took Olango into custody in 2009 after a firearms conviction in Colorado but were again unable to obtain travel documents.
John Sandweg, a former ICE director, said Olango could not be held for more than six months for failing to report to immigration authorities last year because it is not a crime.
“The officers knew that they were not going to be able to hold this guy,” Sandweg said.
Olango, 38, was shot and killed Tuesday by police in El Cajon after pulling out an electronic cigarette, known as a vape pen, from his pocket and pointing it at the police officer who fired, while a second officer stood nearby trying to subdue him with a stun gun, according to police. A family attorney said Olango was having an emotional breakdown over the recent death of his best friend.
The investigation centers on a video taken by a bystander. Police have produced a single frame from the cellphone video to support their account, saying it shows Olango in a “shooting stance.”
The photo shows Olango’s hands clasped together and pointed directly at an officer who had assumed a similar posture with his gun a few feet away.
The vaping device in his hands had two components, a box about the size of a cellphone and a metallic cylinder that was 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. Police said the cylinder was pointed right at the officer.
(Photo Credit: El Cajon Police via Fox News)