First, California’s police accrediting body is considering revoking two LAPD officers’ licenses for wearing badges in a controversial shooting.
The police, José Zavala and Julio Quintanilla, shot and killed a man who committed suicide armed with a knife in 2021. The citizen advisory board of the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training, or POST, ruled that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Zavala and Quintanilla used excessive force on the man, Margarito Lopez, who did not endanger anyone else. The panel members recommended that the officers’ certificates be suspended or revoked altogether.
“Even if it’s late, the good news is that these officers may lose their qualities as police officers and will no longer terrorize the public,” said Luis Carrillo, the lawyer for Lopez’s family.
The final decision will be taken by the full commission which is expected to deal with this issue next month. If POST rules against officials, they can still appeal to an administrative law judge.
The commission reviewed other cases involving state police officers accused of misconduct, including several in the LAPD, including a former homicide detective with multiple DUI convictions and a detective accused of buying a potential contact in China.
But this seems to be the first incident that the police have to deal with the issuing of certificates due to a shooting on the job.
For decades, California had some of the strongest legal protections for law enforcement officers in the country, sometimes allowing the worst offenders to quietly quit and find jobs in other departments.
That changed in 2021 with the passage of Senate Bill 2, which required police agencies to report “serious misconduct,” including excessive use of force, dishonesty and sexual harassment, to POST.
The case is an example of what the accountability law was designed to do, and it’s not necessarily a sign that POST is taking a tougher stance on police shootings, according to Meagan Poulos, a spokeswoman for the agency.
The advisory board made a decision after discussing the issue on April 15.
“In this case, the actions of the police do not rise to the level of clear and convincing,” said the police’s attorney, Leslie Wilcox, during the trial. Wilcox is part of the advocacy team for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the city’s top police officers. “Both officers expressed their fear of the impending threat they believed the victim posed to them, due to the knife and his previous actions.”
On Dec. 18, 2021, Lopez’s sister called 911 because she feared her 22-year-old brother might hurt himself. LAPD officers confronted Lopez outside his building in Historic South Central.
For more than 10 minutes, officers yelled at Lopez to drop his 6-inch butcher knife, according to a report by then-Police Chief Michel Moore and a POST investigation.
At one point, Lopez held a knife to his throat and made the sign of the cross on his chest with his other hand, prompting one officer to fire a very small projectile at him.
After sitting for a few minutes on the front steps of the building, Lopez suddenly jumped to his feet and took four steps toward the police. One shot him with a 40mm round, designed to incapacitate people without killing them. Almost simultaneously, Zavala and Quintanilla fired their guns. Lopez was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Moore and the Los Angeles Police Department both ruled that the two officers violated LAPD policies, concluding that Lopez was not in sufficient danger to justify lethal force.
Lopez’s family sued the city, winning $8 million in damages.
Zavala was suspended for 10 days without pay, while Quintanilla was suspended for five days, according to POST.
The case has been forwarded to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office for consideration of possible charges and is being reviewed, a police spokeswoman said Friday.
