2012 Anaheim riots

On 21 July 2012, police shot and killed a man, Manuel Diaz, in the Anna Drive neighborhood in Anaheim, California, United States. A riot happened for a few nights.

Background

Anna Drive is a poor neighborhood. It is known for having many criminals, including drug dealers. Manuel Diaz was one of them. He and some of his friends were gathering in an alley and threw heroin on a roof. Police came and chased him through the ghetto. Then they shot him in the buttocks and head. He later died at the hospital.

Riots

People started getting angry. They came to Anna Drive and started protesting. Soon most of east Anaheim was fighting police. Trash cans were burnt while people went crazy and broke shop windows. The fourth night was the most violent. Police had to shoot people with fake bullets. Two reporters were hurt.

Response

The mayor had the FBI look at the shooting carefully. Another man, Joel Acevedo, was shot the next day and died too, making it the sixth deadly police shooting in one year. The events also highlighted the divide between the poor west and central parts of Anaheim, where more than half of the population is Hispanic, and the east, where most of the police come from.