Video launched Thursday by the LAPD reveals police flying a drone to get a more in-depth have a look at a person inside a van who had been shot by officers in Boyle Heights final month.
Police mentioned they shot the person after he ignored their instructions to drop what gave the impression to be a rifle.
The rifle, it turned out, was a battery-powered airsoft gun, which shoots plastic pellets.
Because the drone zoomed as much as the white utility van, it captured a graphic picture of Jeremy Flores, 26, slumped over the steering wheel, the faux gun mendacity on his lap. A SWAT staff then approached and pulled Flores out of the automobile.
Moments earlier than the taking pictures, an LAPD officer was heard on body-worn digicam video yelling at Flores to “drop the f— gun.”
One other officer is heard requesting a “Code Robert” — police code for summoning an officer with a rifle.
The unique officer begins to say that one is already there, however his phrases are immediately drowned out by the sound of police gunfire.
The LAPD has mentioned that Flores pointed the gun within the route of officers, prompting them to open fireplace.
However the footage launched Thursday on the LAPD’s YouTube channel presents solely obstructed views of the taking pictures from a number of officers on scene, with out capturing Flores’ actions within the moments earlier than he was shot.
Jeremy Flores, 26, was shot final month in Boyle Heights as he sat in a van holding what turned out to be an airsoft rifle, which shoots plastic pellets.
(Courtesy of Isabella Riviera)
A police spokesman mentioned Thursday that an inside investigation of the taking pictures is ongoing, providing no additional remark. The division has recognized the Hollenbeck Division patrol officers who shot Flores as Livier Jimenez, Fernando Godinez and Michael Ruiz.
The LAPD video reveals that officers have been initially summoned to the scene on July 14 by a 911 name a few shirtless man with facial tattoos and black denims who was strolling via the neighborhood carrying “what appears like an assault rifle.” Movies reveals officers surrounded a white utility van on the mouth of an alley within the 1200 block of Spence Road.
Officers repeatedly yelled for Flores to drop the weapon, however a response will not be audible on any of the launched movies.
After the taking pictures, police flew a drone as much as the van to find out what Flores was doing. Finally, a cadre of closely armed SWAT officers lined up behind a ballistic defend approached the automobile and located him unresponsive. He was pronounced useless resulting from a number of gunshot wounds.
The LAPD’s SWAT staff has for years relied on expertise akin to robots and drones to survey doubtlessly harmful scenes, with out placing officers in danger. Lately, the division introduced it might deploy the unmanned plane on extra routine emergency calls.
Paola Mendez mentioned she was horrified watching the ultimate moments of her fiance’s life, and in addition angered by what she noticed because the division’s makes an attempt to twist details to justify officers’ resolution to fireplace.
“To assert Jeremy ‘refused to exit the automobile’ — earlier than being shot at and after — will not be solely deceptive, it’s a merciless manipulation of the details. Jeremy was sporting a seatbelt. He was gravely injured. He couldn’t transfer,” Mendez wrote in a textual content message to a Occasions reporter. “The so-called ‘weapon’ was on his lap, not in his fingers, and there’s no proof by any means that he pointed it at anybody.”
She added: “He was dying, not defying.”
Along with the LAPD’s assessment, the case can also be being investigated by the state lawyer basic’s workplace, which appears in any respect police shootings of unarmed people.
Earlier this month, Flores’ members of the family and activists packed a Police Fee assembly, questioning why officers didn’t do extra to attempt to defuse the state of affairs, additionally demanding to know why police waited about two hours to offer medical help.
On Tuesday, Police Fee President Erroll Southers requested the division to report again on why police shootings are up.
Thus far in 2025, LAPD officers have opened fireplace 30 instances — together with three shootings in three days final week. That compares with 19 police shootings via this time final 12 months, police data present.
In line with a Occasions database, the rise is being pushed at the very least partially by an increase in what police check with as “notion shootings” — by which officers shoot what seems to be an unarmed suspect primarily based on the mistaken perception that the particular person was armed and posing a menace.
There have already been 10 such shootings to this point this 12 months, in comparison with six in all of 2024, the Occasions database reveals. The database reveals that 18% of all police shootings since 2015 fall into this class. In a majority of the circumstances, the suspects have been carrying reproduction firearms — which aren’t thought of lethal weapons below state legislation, which considers folks carrying them to be unarmed.
In different circumstances, officers shot individuals who they mentioned gave the impression to be armed, however have been in truth holding a towel, a set of keys, a cellphone or a beer bottle. In at the very least 19 situations, the particular person shot by police wasn’t holding something.
