Killing of Yong Yang

November 5, 2025November 5, 2025
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Killing of Yong Yang

Koreatown, Los Angeles, California — May 2, 2024

Summary

On May 2, 2024, Los Angeles Police Department officer Andres Lopez shot and killed Yong Yang, 40, inside his parents’ apartment in Koreatown, Los Angeles. Earlier that morning, Yang’s family had contacted the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH) seeking help for a mental-health evaluation and possible transport to a hospital. A DMH clinician arrived and within minutes called 911 [1][2].

Incident

According to the LAPD’s Critical Incident Video (NRF024-24), officers entered the apartment at 422½ South Gramercy Place using a key provided by family members. Within seconds of entry, Officer Lopez fired multiple rounds between 11:58:02 and 11:58:04 a.m., striking Yang, who was holding a kitchen knife. Los Angeles Fire Department personnel arrived approximately eight and a half minutes later and pronounced Yang deceased at 12:12 p.m. [3][4].

Autopsy

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s report (Case No. 2024-07294) documented four gunshot wounds: left chest, upper abdomen, left abdomen, and left forearm. The fatal injuries involved the heart, lungs, and aorta [5].

Investigations and administrative findings

The case was reviewed by the LAPD Force Investigation Division as Officer-Involved Shooting 024-24. In February 2025, the Chief of Police presented findings to the Use of Force Review Board, which concluded that tactics, firearm drawing, and use of lethal force were within policy. On April 8, 2025, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners adopted those findings in closed session (the votes were 5–0 on tactics, 3–2 on drawing and exhibition, and 3–2 on lethal force). Community organizations and Asian American advocacy groups held meetings and vigils after the decision [6][7][8].

Public response and media coverage

Major Los Angeles media outlets and national networks covered the case in May 2024 [1][2][3][4]. Subsequent reporting by the Los Angeles Times and LAist placed the shooting within a pattern of LAPD encounters involving people experiencing mental-health crises or holding knives [9][10].

Civil litigation

Yang’s parents, Min Yang and Myung Sook Yang, filed a wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit on September 24, 2024, against the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, Officer Lopez, Sergeant Araceli Ruvalcaba-Guerrero, the County of Los Angeles, the Department of Mental Health, and clinician Yoon Soo-Tae. As of November 2025, the case remains pending, with a jury trial scheduled for October 13, 2026 [11].

References (Chicago Author–Date)

  1. CBS News Los Angeles. 2024. “LAPD officers fatally shoot reportedly armed man in Koreatown.” May 3, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/ ↩︎
  2. ABC7 Los Angeles. 2024. “Family says they called Dept. of Mental Health for help with son before police fatally shot him in Koreatown.” May 3, 2024. https://abc7.com/ ↩︎
  3. NBC News. 2024. “Parents called for mental-health help. Police arrived and fatally shot their son.” May 5, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/ ↩︎
  4. Los Angeles Times. 2024. “LAPD officers kill mentally ill man in Koreatown.” May 10, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/ ↩︎
  5. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. 2024. Autopsy Report No. 2024-07294 (Yong Yang). May 2024. ↩︎
  6. Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. 2025. “Closed Session Findings – Officer-Involved Shooting 024-24.” April 8, 2025. https://www.lapdonline.org/ ↩︎
  7. Los Angeles Times. 2025. “Police Commission votes Koreatown shooting was within policy.” April 10, 2025. https://www.latimes.com/ ↩︎
  8. LAist. 2024. “AAPI community holds town hall after LAPD killing of Yong Yang.” June 2024. https://laist.com/ ↩︎
  9. LAist. 2024. “L.A. family, county clinicians say mental-health crisis still ended tragically.” June 2024. https://laist.com/ ↩︎
  10. Los Angeles Times. 2024. “Analysis of LAPD shootings involving people holding knives or similar weapons.” July 2024. https://www.latimes.com/ ↩︎
  11. Los Angeles Superior Court. 2024. Yang v. City of Los Angeles et al. Case No. 24STCV24804, filed September 24, 2024. ↩︎

Attribution & License: Text adapted from the Wikipedia draft “Draft: Killing of Yong Yang” (accessed November 4, 2025), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.