A plastic fork, a phone, a car part: why does the LAPD keep shooting people holding harmless objects?

Police killed Jason Maccani as he held a fork, one of many cases of confused Los Angeles officers rushing to use lethal force

The first report from the Los Angeles police department about the killing of Jason Maccani on 3 February immediately drew scrutiny: an officer had fatally shot a man who had been “armed with a stick” and threatening people in a building on Skid Row, the department said.

LAPD’s update a day later raised new concerns: the 36-year-old Maccani hadn’t been holding any weapon, but rather a “white plastic fork”.