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Two Los Angeles police officers violated department rules on lethal force by shooting and killing a schizophrenic man who barricaded himself in a cramped kitchen as officers ordered him to drop his knife, the LAPD’s civilian Police Commission ruled Tuesday.
The decision marked the second time in recent weeks the commission found that city officers were not facing an imminent threat when they used force against someone in the throes of a mental health crisis.
Furthermore, officials concluded that the officers’ attempts in January to coax Takar Smith out of the kitchen were undermined by a combination of poor planning, questionable tactics and a disregard for protocols that direct officers to summon the department’s mental health unit for such occasions.
The incident came after Smith’s wife, Shameka, called police on Jan. 2 to report her husband had violated a restraining order by showing up at her apartment, where he grew violent.
She mentioned several times that he hadn’t been taking his medication to treat schizophrenia, but the information wasn’t relayed over a radio transmission dispatching officers to the scene. Rather, a dispatcher informed the responding officers that Smith said he intended to fight police.
By a 4-0 tally, the commission agreed with Chief Michel Moore’s findings that officers Joseph Zizzo and Nicolas Alejandre acted inappropriately when they fired a combined seven rounds at Smith, who used a pair of bikes to create a barrier between himself and police as he stood in the kitchen, holding a knife.
After officers shocked Smith several times with a Taser, he was knocked to his knees and lost control of the blade; officers opened fire when he picked up the knife again.
Moore agreed with an internal force review board that said Alejandre and his police partner, Audrey Lopez Alonzo, had “sufficient time to contact” the Mental Evaluation Unit, or MEU, which pairs officers with county social workers trained in de-escalating standoffs with people thought to be mentally ill.
Lopez Alonzo was a probationary officer at the time of the incident. Neither she nor Alejandre considered contacting the MEU, Moore said, nor did they relay information about Smith’s history of schizophrenia to the other responding officers, including Zizzo.
The layout of the small, cluttered apartment posed several tactical disadvantages for officers, according to the report. For one thing, they had little space to maneuver and find better cover, Moore wrote in the report. Still, Moore said he would’ve liked the officers to retreat, even briefly, so they could reevaluate the situation and come up with a better plan of action.
What punishment the officers will receive, if any, falls to Moore.
