Unarmed black man killed by police in Southern California

An unarmed black man was shot dead Tuesday by police in El Cajon, a town about 50 km east of downtown San Diego, prompting protesters to gather at the scene.

Local police told a press conference on night that they were called to a parking lot at a shopping mall about 01:00 pm (2000 GMT) and found the black man was acting erratically. He failed to comply with police instructions to remove his concealed hand from his pocket, police said.

A picture released by local police showed at the moment right before the 30-year-old black man was killed, he encountered two police officers in a strange gesture, with two hands holding an object and aiming at one police.

Police said then an officer shot the man five times while the other fired a Taser. The black man was injured and died later in hospital.

El Cajon police chief Jeff Davis noted that police opened fire because they assumed they were facing a "shooting stance." However, he admitted at the press conference that no weapon was found on the man.

One witness identified as George told NBC 7 TV Station that he did not hear any command by police.

"I didn't hear any command 'halt', 'stop' or 'I'll shoot,' " said George. "I didn' t hear the man say anything. Next thing I see 'pow, pow, pow, pow, pow' , five shots."

One video posted to Twitter showed a woman, identified as the victim's sister, crying at the scene. She was heard saying, "I called you to help me but you killed my brother."

Witnesses at the scene of the shooting questioned the motive of the officers before protesters gathered and demanded an answer in the evening.

Another video shared on Twitter showed a black woman complaining about the police to reporters around her, saying "you didn' t say 'freeze', you didn' t say 'stop', you didn' t say anything, just shot this man five times, sending a message to us that what you can do is 'kill' here, you can do nothing but kill a black man now here." Endi