Jury awards $2 million to family of homeless man shot and killed by LAPD
The family of a homeless man who was shot and killed by a Los Angeles police sergeant was awarded more than $2 million Tuesday by a federal jury following a wrongful death and excessive force suit.
Victor Valencia, 31, was killed Jan. 11, 2020, after LAPD Sgt. Colin Langsdale responded to the Palms neighborhood for reports of a person carrying a gun and acting erratically.
Valencia was carrying a bicycle part, not a gun, and was on his way to his sister’s house, the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.
Langsdale said he shot Valencia after the man began pointing the object at him.
The shooting was cleared by the Los Angeles Police Commission in November 2020.
The court filing from the concert promoter was in response to a wrongful death suit brought by Drakeo’s brother that alleges egregious security failings.
But in the suit filed in federal court in March 2021, Valencia’s parents and now 9-year-old son alleged that Langsdale had used excessive force resulting in Valencia’s death.
“An eye witness testified that the shooting did not happen the way Sgt. Langsdale described and that Mr. Valencia looked erratic and was moving his arms above his shoulder level in the air but was not pointing the object at anyone and was not threatening anyone,” the law office of attorney Dale Galipo, who represented Valencia’s family, wrote in a release.
On Tuesday, after a five-day trial, the jury unanimously found true the allegations of excessive force, awarding the family $2,165,000.
The verdict came a day after Los Angeles police shot and injured a 39-year-old man who was also reportedly holding an object police mistook for a gun.
On Monday evening, police responded to Leimert Park for reports of an assault with a deadly weapon by a person with a “black, semiautomatic handgun.”
“Officers made contact with the suspect, who they believed was in possession of a handgun,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a release.
Officers shot the man, later identified as Jermaine Petit, after he pointed the object at them while walking away, police said. Petit was taken to a hospital in serious condition and is expected to survive.
A “six-inch, black metal latch actuator” was recovered at the scene, police said.
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