Latasha lived in South Central LA, and she lived very close to the Empire Liquor Market, which is why she went there to purchase some orange juice that Saturday morning. She walks into the store, goes into the refrigerated part of the store, and gets a bottle of orange juice that costs $1.79. She had $2 in her hand to pay for the juice. She sticks the juice into her backpack and part of it’s sticking out of the top, and she proceeds to go to the counter to pay for it.
Mrs. Du, the shopkeeper’s wife, is tending the shop that morning and immediately starts to aggressively ask Latasha if she’s trying to steal her juice — this is from eyewitness’ accounts. Latasha says, ‘I’m trying to pay for it.’ Du grabs and tries to pull the backpack off her to see what’s in it, and Latasha starts to fight back as a result of that. Du falls down twice while they’re fighting. When she stands back up the second time, she has a gun in her hand and she’s pointing it at Latasha. The juice has fallen out of the backpack by now; Latasha bends down, picks up the juice, puts it on the counter, and turns to walk out of the store to avoid any further confrontation. Du shoots her in the back of the head.
Du is initially charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances. She’s found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The recommendation from the court, that’s the probation officer, is that she receive the maximum sentence — 16 years in prison, because she didn’t seem to show any remorse in her interviews. But the judge in the case, Judge Joyce Karlin, decides that Du should not spend any time in jail, and instead gives her probation, makes her pay for Latasha’s medical and funeral expenses, gives her community [service], and lets her go — to the horror and anger of the larger community, the black community, but also from all parts of the city.
What’s even more painful to the community, and particularly to Latasha’s family, was that the judge said that Latasha was the criminal and that Du was her victim. She said in her sentencing statement that if Latasha was still alive, she’d probably be in her court accused of assault on a shopkeeper. So we have one person who is alive and well — now she’s the victim. And the person who’s dead and bleeding on the ground is the criminal. And we see that happening over and over again. We saw it with Michael Brown, and we saw it with Trayvon Martin — you know, on and on and on. It’s such a long list of names.
Read more here; https://www.good.is/articles/latasha-harlins-rodney-king-anniversary