A homeless man shot dead by Los Angeles police had been released last May from prison after serving roughly 14 years for bank robbery, and was wanted for violating probation, a law enforcement official says.
A federal warrant was issued January 9 for 39-year-old Charley Saturmin Robinet after he didn't provide monthly reports to a probation officer in November, December and January, Deputy US Marshal Matthew Cordova said.
A law enforcement official identified the man known as Robinet as the person killed on Sunday by police.
The official wasn't authorised to speak publicly and talked on condition of anonymity.
Robinet was released from prison on May 12 after being convicted of three federal charges in 2000 for holding up a Wells Fargo branch and pistol-whipping an employee to pay for acting classes.
Axel Cruau, the consul general for France in Los Angeles, said the man known as Robinet had stolen the identity of a French citizen and was living in the US under that name after applying for a French passport in the late 1990s.
The bank robbery arrest spurred the consulate to provide Robinet with support, but officials later realised he was not French, Cruau said.
"The real Charley Robinet is in France apparently living a totally normal life and totally unaware his identity had been stolen years and years ago," Cruau said.
While in the federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota, the man known as Robinet was assigned to the mental health unit and federal officials said medical staff determined he was suffering from "a mental disease or defect" that required treatment in a psychiatric hospital, documents show.
Robinet was killed on Sunday after a confrontation with police.
Authorities say he tried to grab a probationary officer's gun and three officers fatally shot him.
The shooting was captured on video but exactly what happened remained unclear.
The footage has been viewed by millions of people online.
Several dozen people rallied on Tuesday in protest of the shooting.
A memorial at the site of the shooting features white roses placed over a tent, blankets and clothing belonging to the man known as "Africa".
The man who was shot was black, as is the recently-hired officer who was just short of completing his probationary year on the force, police said.
The violence had echoes of the August police shooting of 25-year-old Ezell Ford, whose death in a struggle with Los Angeles officers brought demonstrations in the city.
Ford was unarmed.
Police said he was shot after reaching for an officer's gun.
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