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Ellie Beaver writes about the fatal police shooting of Kurt Andras Reinhold: a 42-year-old father of two, and former Nissan car sales associate from Ladera Heights. On Wednesday September 23, Reinhold was confronted by Orange County sheriff’s deputies at roughly 1:15pm for walking in the middle of the street. Two shots were fired, Reinhold was killed, and protests are now underway.
At 1:15 pm on Wednesday September 23, the two officers approached Kurt Reinhold, who was walking in the middle of the street. They told him to move to the sidewalk. “Stop touching me,” Reinhold is able to be heard saying in cellphone footage.
“Go sit down” one deputy says, but is ignored by Reinhold as he tries to walk past him.
The two men wrestle Reinhold to the ground; he wriggles as they jump on top of him to try and restrain his arms and legs. “He’s got my gun! He’s got my gun!” One of the officers yells before two shots are fired onto Reinhold.
Sheriff Don Barnes declined to comment on whether the deputies had a lawful reason to detain Reinhold or not. He also denied the claim that the deputies’ encounter with Reinhold was tied to a jaywalking crackdown.
42-year-old Reinhold had been struggling with mental health issues, and was living on the streets of San Clemente for about a month, before he was killed by two homeless services deputies assigned to the city. They were said to have been trained in techniques used to de-escalate dangerous situations. Carrie Braun, spokeswoman for the San Clemente Department said in a statement that she is unsure what caused the officers to approach Reinhold. However, she said that the deputies had spoken to him on at least two prior occasions - none of which were combative.
In the video recording, it is unclear whether Reinhold grabbed the weapon or not, and no bodycam footage has emerged, since Orange County sheriff’s deputies do not wear them. However, Sheriff Barns reiterated in a statement that “the deputy did state four different times, 'He's got my gun,'".
The deputies involved in the shooting are 8- and 13-year veterans of the department. and homeless liaison officers part of the Homeless Outreach Team. However, the pair has not yet been identified by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The case is now under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, while the deputies have been placed on leave.
Reinhold is not the first homeless man to die at the hands of law enforcement officers in Orange County. According to the Los Angeles Times, his death “underscores the inherent tension between police and homeless people, which has increased along with the double-digit growth in the homeless population in Southern California over the past four years.”
Sheriff Barnes delivered a powerful statement on Twitter, noting the concerns surrounding the police's treatment of Black Americans. "I want you to know how seriously the Orange County Sheriff's Department takes our responsibility to provide professional and transparent law enforcement services to our community," he said.
The recent deaths of Black individuals at the hands of police officers have spurred calls for serious police reform. Some of the proposals include stripping police of the responsibility of handling people who are mentally ill or homeless, and instead placing police funding into other resources such as accessible housing and recovery counseling.
The department is set to conduct a critical incident review, which will look at its policy, training, and procedures; adequate changes may be made. The LAPD now requires all officers to attempt to defuse situations before using force. However, while the number of police shootings has fallen, the number of homeless people shot and killed by authorities has risen annually since 2016.
“They are training officers to de-escalate, but they’re also trained that, if you feel threatened, you can go directly to lethal force, whether the fear is supported or not,” Pasadena civil rights attorney Dan Stormer said during the civil trial of an eerily similar case in 2015: the fatal shooting of another mentally ill and homeless man - Charly “Africa” Keunang.
Jackson Hinkle, who ran unsuccessfully for the San Clemente City Council, helped lead protests over Reinhold’s killing on Thursday. He said in a statement that “the city has a lot of animosity and aggression toward the local homeless population.” He joined protesters demonstrating Thursday morning after the shooting, where five were ultimately arrested after blocking traffic and vandalizing a police car. The Sheriff released a statement asking those who wished to protest to do so peacefully.
Kurt Andras Reinhold is remembered as a “loving dad and gentle man” who co-coached a youth soccer team, in which kids “responded immediately to his positive energy”. Phil Pascal, a classmate of Reinhold’s at Clark Atlanta University, describes him as “always jovial, funny and really, really sweet.” A memorial was held at Hotel miramar in San Clemente, near where the incident occurred earlier this week.
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