Police Shooting

* “LAPD Officer Kills Man Who Allegedly Tried to Get Her Gun,” Nov. 21.

The firemen present at the shooting were unavailable to give you their statements, and no final investigation result was yet available from either the county coroner’s office or the Los Angeles Police Department’s internal investigation. Given the above circumstances, why is the article immediately quoting mental health advocates and discussing the training LAPD officers receive in dealing with the mentally ill?

Articles in The Times are more and more becoming editorials and commentaries, and less and less the reporting of the facts. If the suspect shot by the officer was under the influence of PCP, then mental health status, less-than-lethal weaponry, and officer training dealing with the mentally ill becomes an irrelevant issue as it relates to that kind of suspect.

It would be wiser, and it would hedge The Times’ diminishing credibility, if news stories were reported using facts available at the time instead of inserting inflammatory and presumptuous opinions into the story.

Your article was nothing but a reporter’s commentary using factless assumptions. Please get all the facts before writing the article.

ANDRE BELOTTO

Los Angeles