McDade was killed the night of March 24 in Pasadena, about 17 miles to the west, when two Pasadena police officers shot him after being alerted to a possible armed robbery. McDade, however, was unarmed. And, as it turned out, the victim who reported the robbery to police later admitted that he never saw a gun.
The incident has provoked outrage in the African-American community in Pasadena and nearby Los Angeles as yet another example of young Black men losing their lives under questionable circumstances. McDade’s death occurred in the shadow of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in late February at the hands of Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.
