This story is becoming far too familiar. It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have (Sandra Bland), how old you are (Tamir Rice), if you’re cooperating with orders (Philando Castile), or laying on your stomach, handcuff (Oscar Grant), if you’re black and interacting with police you hope and pray you will live to see another day.

Zelalem Eshetu Ewnetu has added a new narrative to this familiar story. You don’t have to be a black American to be shot and killed by the police, if your skin is dark enough you now have to hope that a simple traffic stop doesn’t turn into a death sentence. Ewnetu is from Ethiopia and came to the U.S. 8 years ago on a scholarship to the University of Idaho.

He was only 28 years old when he was shot and killed by LAPD. He was sitting in his car when police were responding to a burglary and approached him. But his family is calling fowl play because the LAPD can’t seem to get their stories straight. There were conflicting reports made by LAPD about what transpired the night Ewnetu was killed. Both reports are slightly different and both contradict the evidence found at the scene.

One report says they smelt marijuana, asked Ewnetu to exit the car, he refused and pulled out a gun so they opened fire and shot him in the torso.  The gun was found in the back seat of his car and the use marijuana is legal in California. The second report says, Ewnetu got out of the car, broke free from deputies and ran back to the car to retrieve his gun which is when they opened fire. The second report gives them a better way explain why the gun was found in the back seat and possibly the bullet holes in back windshield.

But most of us know the narrative to this story, the police are lying. They thought Ewnetu was a thug and dope dealer because his skin was black and now that know he was an engineer employed by California Public Utilities who with honors from the University of Idaho in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering they scrambling to get their stories straight.