Police commissioners determined Tuesday that two LAPD officers were justified in fatally shooting a 20-year-old man who had a toy gun. Eric Rivera died last summer after he was shot by officers, then run over by their uncontrolled patrol car.
Ten months after a man who had a toy gun was shot by Los Angeles police, then run over by an uncontrolled patrol car, police commissioners determined Tuesday that the officers were justified in using deadly force.
The 5-0 decision was met with anger and tears from Eric Rivera’s relatives and local activists who rallied in his name. Rivera’s mother began crying. His father sat in silence in the middle of the meeting room.
Rivera’s parents have routinely attended the Police Commission’s weekly meetings, demanding that the officers who shot their son be held accountable.
“I felt like I was actually doing something,” said Philip Malik, Rivera’s father. “Now it feels like it didn’t really result in anything.”
Rivera, 20, was shot and killed in Wilmington last summer. The shooting unfolded after Officers Arturo Urrutia and Daniel Ramirez responded to a neighborhood in the 1100 block of North Wilmington Boulevard to check on a report of a man with a gun, the LAPD has said.
Rivera was walking on the sidewalk when the officers encountered him, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in the days after the shooting. The officers thought Rivera was holding a real gun when he turned toward them, the chief added.
The officers bailed out of their car so quickly that they failed to put it in park, Beck said. They shot Rivera, who fell to the ground. The car then rolled over him, “pinning him underneath,” the LAPD said.
Rivera died at the scene. Coroner’s officials said he died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, chest and legs.
One of the officers was taken to a hospital for an arm injury.
Rivera’s parents have challenged the police account, saying that he was shot as he tried to avoid the moving vehicle. They filed a federal lawsuit last year, alleging the officers used excessive force.
His parents have called for criminal charges against the officers. On Tuesday, the district attorney’s office said it had not yet received a case from the LAPD to review.
“This doesn’t get any easier,” his mother, Valerie Rivera, told the commission earlier this year. “I’m not going to stop until I get justice for him.”
kate.mather@latimes.com
@katemather
