Elderly Man Waving a Wooden Crucifix, Shot and Killed by Police
A 73-year-old unarmed man who suffered from dementia was shot seven times by police in California, while on a walk, his family and authorities say.
Francisco Serna was killed early Monday morning in Bakersfield, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Right across the street is where police shot my father with nine bullets to his body and my dad was not armed,” Rogelio “Roy” Serna, Francisco’s son, said in a Facebook video. “There is false reports about my father having weapons. He was never armed.”
Police said Serna was shot seven times, not nine.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing by the police department’s critical review board, the Times reports. Officer Reagan Selman, has been placed on paid administrative leave, the Bakersfield Police Department said.
Officers responded to the 7900 block of Silver Birch Avenue about 12:35 a.m. Monday for a report of a man “brandishing a handgun,” Bakersfield Police Sergeant Gary Carruesco told the Times.
“My dad did not own a gun. He was a 73-year-old retired grandpa, just living life,” Rogelio Serna told The Times. “He should have been surrounded by family at old age, not surrounded by bullets.”