This is the summary of the article by Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Reporter of the LA Public Press on April 10, 2025. For the full version of the original article, please visit https://lapublicpress.org/2025/04/lapd-police-commission-votes-that-fatal-koreatown-shooting-was-within-policy/
On April 9, 2025, the Los Angeles Police Commission voted 3-2 to approve the fatal shooting of 40-year-old Yong Yang by LAPD Officer Andres Lopez as “within department policy”—a decision that has devastated Yang’s family and drawn widespread concern from community members and civil rights advocates.
Yong, a Korean American man experiencing a mental health crisis, was alone and visibly distressed when he was confronted by LAPD officers in Koreatown on May 2, 2024. Despite the officers’ access to non-lethal tools and training, they opened fire within moments. Officer Lopez claimed that Yong, holding a knife, moved toward him—yet body-worn camera footage and witness accounts raise serious doubts about whether the officers exhausted other means to de-escalate the situation before choosing deadly force.
While the Commission did unanimously find that Officer Lopez violated department policy in the tactics leading up to the shooting—including a failure to slow down, back away, or wait for mental health responders—the majority still ruled that the shooting itself was legally justified. The decision ignored LAPD Chief Michel Moore’s own recommendation that all actions, including tactics and use of force, were appropriate.
To Yong’s grieving family, the ruling feels one-sided, designed to protect the officers and the department more than to seek justice or truth. “Our son didn’t have to die that day,” Yong’s father has said. “He needed help. But the officers treated him like a threat instead of a human being in pain.”
The family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, arguing that the officers failed to follow protocol, bypassed de-escalation techniques, and never even used their available less-lethal options. They also claim the LAPD failed to notify them promptly about Yong’s death—a further betrayal amid their grief.
This ruling has sparked renewed outrage, particularly among Korean American residents of Los Angeles, who see in Yong’s death a larger pattern of policing failures—especially when dealing with individuals in mental health crises. The case has also drawn attention to how often police justify fatal shootings involving knives or edged weapons, despite national scrutiny over such practices.
While the Police Commission’s vote closes one chapter in the department’s internal review, it opens up a deeper wound for a family still searching for accountability—and for a city wrestling with what it means to truly protect and serve all its residents.
Source: LA Public Press