The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has released video of a deputy shooting a man during a confrontation last month near Azusa, offering the public its account of an encounter that left the man critically wounded.
What the department says happened
Deputies from the San Dimas station were sent around 3:20 p.m. on May 20 to the 5500 block of North Orangecrest Avenue, in an unincorporated area near Azusa, after a report of a man harming himself with a knife, according to CBS News Los Angeles. The department says the man came out of the property still holding the knife, ignored repeated commands to drop it, and then charged at a deputy — who opened fire, MyNewsLA reported, citing the Sheriff's Department. A knife with a roughly three-inch blade was recovered at the scene, and no deputies were hurt.
The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, the department said at the time. Authorities have not publicly released his name, and his current condition has not been updated.
About the footage
Sheriff's officials released the footage under California's "critical incident" disclosure law, which generally requires law enforcement agencies to make video of a shooting public within 45 days, KTLA reported. The account of the encounter conveyed in the video and accompanying materials is the department's; no independent witness or family account has been made public.
The department has not said whether deputies used or considered less-lethal options — such as a Taser or bean-bag rounds — before the deputy fired.
What happens next
The Sheriff's Homicide Bureau and Internal Affairs Bureau are investigating, CBS Los Angeles reported, and the findings will ultimately be reviewed by the department's internal force-review panels. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office will separately examine the case to determine whether the shooting was legally justified. Such reviews can take many months.
