The Anaheim police brutality drama has not come to an end. Another violent protest against the deadly police shooting, which caused Manuel Diaz to lose his life and ended with 24 arrests and several injuries.

Protests have been going on for a few days, this time as many as 500 demonstrators and 250 police officers were confronting eachother for several hours. Most of the protesters acted peacefully but some became violent so the police had to use pepper balls and beanbag rounds.

The clash began after a City Council meeting in which different leaders from Anaheim, California voted to ask the U.S. attorney’s office to investigate the incidents from last weekend, which saw a shooting involving an officer that ended with the loss of Manuel Diaz’s life. Diaz was catalogued by the police as a known gang member but during the incident he was unarmed, which caused public outrage from the witnesses against the police. The protests have been going on since Saturday.

The council chamber surroundings were filled with protesters. At the beginning they were there peacefully, but as the place became overcrowded, some people pushed on the windows so the police had to push them back.

However, this was not the violence trigger, as the protesters just marched to the police headquarters and then back to the City Council. The event that lead to violent protests was the detention of a man who the police thought was armed, but in reality wasn’t, so the crowd started throwing rocks at the officers.

Sgt. of the Anaheim police Bob Dunn explained that the violent protesters seemed to be outsiders who wanted to provoke a violent clash between the police and the other protesters.  At one point, the animosity at the protest escalated with Molotov cocktails being thrown, and business windows were smashed and trashcans were set on fire.

The night ended with the detention of 24 protesters, 20 adults and four minors, with five people hurt, a police officer, two members of the media and two protesters, but no life-threatening injuries were reported.

The Diaz family is suing the city and the Police Department, and is asking, according to their lawyer, for $50 million in compensation for damages.

The Police Chief John Welter explained that in Diaz’s case, two officers had approached three men, including Manuel Diaz, who were acting suspiciously in an alley. Upon noticing the officers the men ran away and Welter explained that Diaz failed to obey the police officers orders to stop, and while in pursuit, he threw a package which was believed to be heroin on to the roof of a complex building.  The Police Chief did not explain the motives behind the police officers actions.

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“No justice, no peace” and “cops, pigs, murderers,” were the words the protesters chanted against a deadly police shooting in Anaheim, California this weekend.

The protesters congregated on Sunday on the outsides of the police department to protest against an officer-involved shooting that left a man dead and led to a violent clash between the police and the witnesses.

Anaheim Police Chief John Welter held a press conference to explain what happened on Saturday (July 24). He stated that two officers were put on paid leave after one of them fatally injured  Manuel Diaz,  a 24-year-old man who the police said was a known gang member, even though no weapon was found on Diaz.

Chief Welter said the officers approached three men in an alleyway when they ran away, and Manuel Diaz was one of those men. One of the officers chased Diaz to the front of an apartment complex where the shooting occurred. Diaz died in a hospital a few hours later. Welter did not explain why the police officer shot Diaz.

After the shooting, angry witnesses threw bottles and other objects to the officers who immediately responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds. Also, a police dog got out of a car and attacked a woman who was holding her children, which made the situation even worse. Violent protests have occurred during the whole weekend.

In reference to the dog incident Chief Welter said they were extremely sorry and added “I’m certainly very concerned about anyone who was bit. It’s embarrassing to us. The officer, I’m telling you, was just devastated.”

Anaheim’s Mayor Tom Tait wants to solve this crisis as soon as possible; during a press conference he said that “transparency is essential” and that “the investigation will seek the truth. And whatever the truth is, we will own it.”

This is not the first case of citizen outrage against actions done by the police in California. In 2011 a video appeared on the internet of an officer blasting pepper spray on the face of protesters who were peacefully seated at northern California university. The officer’s actions–who was a member of the university police force–led to indignation and anger from the crowd at the scene, who started shouting to the officer.

The officer was dressed in riot gear so his face was covered and just left the scene after the crowd started shouting. Nine of the students were treated on the scene and only two were taken to the hospital and released the same day. Numerous Twitter and Facebook accounts criticized the officer’s actions and supported the students’ protests.

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