One of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of California man Diante Yarber, 26, was previously charged with a hate crime and booted from the force, according to documents obtained by The Guardian.
A department spokesman with Barstow police confirmed Monday that officer Jimmie Alfred Walker was one of the cops involved in the April 5 shooting, in which Yarber was killed in a barrage of bullets in a Walmart parking lot just outside Los Angeles. The father of two was believed to be unarmed.
Since the shooting, court documents revealed that Walker, who is white, was charged with a hate crime and battery in 2010 after the then-30-year-old officer hurled racial slurs at a man and assaulted him and a woman in an off-duty scuffle. Walker ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of fighting in public and public intoxication. The battery and hate crime charges were dismissed, however.
