Production Assistant on 'Tosh.0' Shot And Killed By Police In Case Of Mistaken Identity

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | April 11, 2014 |

By Dustin Rowles | Miscellaneous | April 11, 2014 |

This story is just terrible, awful, no good and sad. A guy named Josh Winkler, a newly hired production assistance on Tosh.0 was trying to help some people who were being held at knifepoint in a neighbor’s apartment in a Los Angeles apartment complex. When deputies arrived on the scene, Winkler was being held hostage with two other men. When the suspect began to stab the hostages, Winkler and another man ran toward the police officers to escape, and — mistaking Winkler for the suspect — police shot and killed him.

From KTLA (via Jezebel):

The deputy-involved shooting occurred after a report of a “assault with a deadly weapon, man with a knife” at an apartment complex in the 900 block of Palm Avenue, a call that came in about 9:30 p.m. Monday, the news release stated. When deputies got to the apartment, Winkler came running out, “lunging at the back” of another man also fleeing, the release said.

[Winkler] rushed out of an apartment behind another victim who was bleeding profusely from the neck and covered in blood, when deputies fired on both men, according to a sheriff’s news release.

“Both ran directly at the deputies,” the release said. “Believing Winkler was the assailant and the assault was ongoing and he would attack the entry team; three deputies fired their duty weapons at him.” Both men were hit by gunfire. Winkler was a thin, white man wearing a black shirt and he matched a description of the stabber provided by witnesses, according to the release.

That is terrible, and obviously neither Winkler’s fault — who was trying to escape a stabbing suspect — or the police, who made an honest mistake in believing that a man lunging over the back of another man bleeding from the neck was the suspect.

Meanwhile, the stabbing suspect, Alexander McDonald, has been charged with murder, attempted murder, and torture.

Source: KTLA