LASD Releases Body Cam Video Of Deputy Shooting Of Isaias Cervantes In Cudahy
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Wednesday released body camera video from the March 31 shooting of Isaias Cervantes by a deputy.
According to the department, deputies were called out at about 8:40 p.m. to a home in the 5100 block of Live Oak Street in the city of Cudahy. The caller told authorities that a family member was experiencing a mental health crisis and was causing a disturbance by pushing other family members.
The caller told dispatch that Cervantes, 25, had obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety and was hard of hearing.
"He's here in the house," the caller can be heard saying in audio released by the department. "Can you guys send him to the hospital?"
The caller said a therapist was at the home attempting to calm Cervantes, but the efforts were not working.
Two deputies arrived at the home at about 8:50 p.m. after the department said they "coordinated and discussed the availability of less lethal force options."
The crisis counselor at the home told deputies that she had been working with Cervantes for about six weeks and had been called out to the home that night for his "verbally aggressive demeanor," according to the sheriff's department.
Deputies then approached the home and asked Cervantes to come outside with them, but when he declined they entered the home and attempted to detain him with handcuffs. The video then shows Cervantes fighting with the deputies, and both body cameras fall to the ground.
One of the deputies can be heard in the video saying, "He's going for my gun, he's going for my gun." Video appears to show Cervantes' hand near the deputy's waist, but it's not immediately clear what he is doing.
The other deputy can then be heard asking, "Does he have your gun?" The first deputy does not respond, and a single shot is fired.
Deputies called for an ambulance and Cervantes was taken to the hospital with a single shot to his torso. One of the deputies suffered cuts to his face, bilateral eye contusions, corneal abrasions and a cervical sprain, according to LASD.
"The family of Isaias Cervantes is devastated after watching the misleading bodycam video of his horrific shooting," Austin Dove, an attorney for the family, said in a statement. "The video confirms that the L.A. Sheriff's Department entered his home when Isaias was calm and posing no threat, yet the officers escalated the situation ending in the senseless shooting of an unarmed, deaf man with autism."
As for Cervantes, Dove said he was still in the hospital and could be paralyzed for life. The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover medical costs.
LASD said a family member later told deputies that Cervantes was upset about his father being hospitalized and had told them to call police and "tell them to shoot me."
The video release comes days after the Cudahy City Council adopted a resolution calling for accountability in the shooting.
The shooting remains under investigation. The full video can be viewed on the sheriff's department's YouTube channel.
