Manning Kass Obtains Full Dismissal on Officer-Involved-Shooting Case

Manning Kass delivers once again for one of its longest tenured clients thanks in large part to Los Angeles Partner Mildred K. O’Linn and Associate Alison E. De Young. This case involves an officer involved shooting, wherein police officers responded to a domestic violence call on June 27, 2021 and encountered a man wielding a knife on a second story breezeway of a condo. Officers were dispatched to the address after the reporting party that called 9-1-1 indicated that she had an argument with her boyfriend, which culminated in her pepper spraying him. The reporting party also informed dispatch that she had locked herself in the bedroom with their four-month-old child.

Officers responded on scene and established a perimeter from ground level including placing officers in the garage area of the building next door. The man came out on to the second floor breezeway and began yelling at the officers while brandishing the knife.

Officers maintained distance between themselves and the man from ground level while requesting the subject to give up and to drop the knife. The man refused to cooperate with the officers’ commands, and continued to go in and out of the condo, while repeatedly communicating to the officers that he would not go peacefully. The man yelled that he would force the officers to shoot him, that he wanted the officers to kill him, and that he was not going to jail, so the only way out was by killing him.

Ultimately, the man charged down the exterior stairs heading towards the officers in the garage next door with the knife in his hand. Beanbag rounds were deployed striking the man, but he continued charging. An officer in the garage area then fired multiple rounds from his handgun striking the man several times. Despite medical care administered at the scene, the man ultimately passed away.

On May 31, 2024, United States District Court Judge Kato issued an order granting defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the entire action with prejudice. Plaintiffs have filed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit.