Witness accounts contradict deputies' statements in shooting of teenager

Times' reporters Robert Faturechi and Joel Rubin reported late last week on a lawsuit filed by against Los Angeles County by the family of a teenager shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy in 2009. Avery Cody Jr., a 16-year-old black teenager, was fatally shot in the back by Deputy Sergio Reyes near Alondra Boulevard and Poinsettia Avenue in Compton on July 5, 2009.

An excerpt of the article follows:

A Compton teenager fatally shot in the back by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in 2009 was not holding a gun, according to the testimony of one eyewitness who sharply contradicted the sheriff's official account of the shooting.

A grainy video of 16-year-old Avery Cody's final moments shows the right-handed teen with an object in his left hand — which his family and friends have said was a cellphone, not the revolver that sheriff's deputies say they recovered at the scene.

Attorneys for Cody's parents, who are suing the county, said Friday's testimony is the second significant inconsistency to arise in the case of the July 2009 shooting. The other was when Deputy Sergio Reyes' account of taking cover behind a metal newspaper rack was contradicted by a surveillance video obtained from a nearby doughnut shop, attorneys said.

"Let's get real here. You wanted to convince the detectives that you were under fire. And so you told them that you took cover behind a blue newspaper rack," said plaintiff's attorney John Sweeney to Reyes during an earlier deposition. "Subsequently you saw the video, and you saw that you came nowhere near that before shooting."

Read more: Eyewitness says Compton teenager killed by deputy held a cellphone, not a gun

Photo: Avery Cody Jr.

Credit: California Department of Motor Vehicles