The release of bodycam footage related to the shooting death of 40-year-old Yong Yang by an LAPD officer has highlighted issues of excessive use of firearms and lack of on-site response-ability by law enforcement agents.
Not all cases of police use of firearms are legally justified. For example, in March 2022, Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall was sentenced to six years in prison for fatally shooting Laudemer Arboleda, a man with mental illness. The jury found Hall guilty of assault with a firearm.
In the final ruling, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Terri Mockler criticized Hall for making “extremely poor choices,” stating, “While the victim may have violated the law, it was no law that carried a sentence of death for him. The victim did not deserve to die for evading a police officer.”
This case shares similarities with Yang’s incident, including the victim having a mental illness, the police’s claim of being threatened, the release of bodycam footage, and the fact that the involved officer had prior “officer-involved shooting” incidents.
The incident occurred in 2018 during a low-speed car chase between the police and the mentally ill victim. Records show that police pursued the victim’s car for about nine minutes at approximately six miles per hour.
Deputy Hall blocked the road with his sheriff’s vehicle to stop the victim’s car. When the car did not stop, Hall fired nine shots at the driver’s seat, killing the victim. Hall’s defense team released bodycam footage claiming that the victim’s car was threatening Hall and his colleagues, asserting that Hall had to make a split-second decision for his safety. However, the jury was not convinced.
Initially, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office cleared Hall of any wrongdoing after a nine-month internal investigation, but the case was reopened following a two-year investigation by the prosecutor’s office, leading to Hall’s indictment.
In March 2021, Hall was also involved in another fatal shooting of Tyrell Wilson, a 32-year-old transient with mental illness, who approached Hall with a knife.
This was the first case in Contra Costa County where an officer was prosecuted for a police shooting.
After the guilty verdict, the Contra Costa County government agreed to pay $4.9 million to the victim’s family, but Hall still faced legal consequences.
David Paek, a criminal law attorney, previously worked with the Korean Community Lawyers Association 16 years ago to investigate the police shooting of Michael Cho.
“Despite protests at that time, nothing has changed. Police shootings, especially involving mentally ill individuals, continue to be a problem due to insufficient training for officers in handling such cases,” said Paek.
An online petition on Change.org calling for restrictions on police firearm use against individuals with mental illnesses has been launched. The petition, initiated by a friend of Yong Yang’s family, cites Treatment Advocacy Center data showing that people with mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than the general population.
The petition advocates for limiting the use of firearms by law enforcement against individuals with mental illnesses and calls for thorough investigations and accountability for officers who use firearms.
BY YEOL JANG [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
