Video shows LAPD drone peer into vehicle of man shot while holding fake gun

[ad_1] Video launched Thursday by the LAPD reveals police flying a drone to get a better have a look at a person inside a van who had been shot by officers in Boyle Heights final month.

Police mentioned they shot the person after he ignored their instructions to drop what seemed to be a rifle.

The rifle, it turned out, was a battery-powered airsoft gun, which shoots plastic pellets.

Because the drone zoomed as much as the white utility van, it captured a graphic picture of Jeremy Flores, 26, slumped over the steering wheel, the faux gun mendacity on his lap. A SWAT group then approached and pulled Flores out of the car.

Moments earlier than the capturing, an LAPD officer was heard on body-worn digicam video yelling at Flores to “drop the f— gun.”

One other officer is heard requesting a “Code Robert” — police code for summoning an officer with a rifle.

The unique officer begins to say that one is already there, however his phrases are out of the blue drowned out by the sound of police gunfire.

The LAPD has mentioned that Flores pointed the gun within the course of officers, prompting them to open hearth.

However the footage launched Thursday on the LAPD’s YouTube channel gives solely obstructed views of the capturing from a number of officers on scene, with out capturing Flores’ actions within the moments earlier than he was shot.

<img class="image" alt="Portrait of Jeremy Flores" srcset="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/21e2ead/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/320x348!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/82d8125/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/568x618!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg 568w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1f1130d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/768x836!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg 768w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/26ada68/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/1024x1114!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg 1024w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9fe5f2d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/1200x1306!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg 1200w" sizes="100vw" width="1200" height="1306" src="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9fe5f2d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/913x994+0+0/resize/1200x1306!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd6%2Ff8%2Ff1eb9fe7435ab009bc7d90071e93%2Fla-me-lapd-drone-police-shooting-1.jpeg" decoding="async" loading="lazy"/> Jeremy Flores, 26, was shot final month in Boyle Heights as he sat in a van holding what turned out to be an airsoft rifle, which shoots plastic pellets.

(Courtesy of Isabella Riviera)

A police spokesman mentioned Thursday that an inner investigation of the capturing is ongoing, providing no additional remark. The division has recognized the Hollenbeck Division patrol officers who shot Flores as Livier Jimenez, Fernando Godinez and Michael Ruiz.

The LAPD video reveals that officers have been initially summoned to the scene on July 14 by a 911 name a couple of shirtless man with facial tattoos and black denims who was strolling by means of the neighborhood carrying “what appears to be like like an assault rifle.” Movies reveals officers surrounded a white utility van on the mouth of an alley within the 1200 block of Spence Road.

Officers repeatedly yelled for Flores to drop the weapon, however a response shouldn't be audible on any of the launched movies.

After the capturing, police flew a drone as much as the van to find out what Flores was doing. Finally, a cadre of closely armed SWAT officers lined up behind a ballistic protect approached the car and located him unresponsive. He was pronounced useless resulting from a number of gunshot wounds.

The LAPD’s SWAT group has for years relied on expertise akin to robots and drones to survey doubtlessly harmful scenes, with out placing officers in danger. Not too long ago, the division introduced it could deploy the unmanned plane on extra routine emergency calls.

Paola Mendez mentioned she was horrified watching the ultimate moments of her fiance’s life, and likewise angered by what she noticed because the division’s makes an attempt to twist info to justify officers’ resolution to fireside.

“To assert Jeremy ‘refused to exit the car’ — earlier than being shot at and after — shouldn't be solely deceptive, it’s a merciless manipulation of the info. Jeremy was sporting a seatbelt. He was gravely injured. He couldn't transfer,” Mendez wrote in a textual content message to a Occasions reporter. “The so-called ‘weapon’ was on his lap, not in his fingers, and there's no proof in any respect that he pointed it at anybody.”

She added: “He was dying, not defying.”

Along with the LAPD’s evaluation, the case can also be being investigated by the state lawyer common’s workplace, which appears to be like in any respect police shootings of unarmed people.

Earlier this month, Flores’ relations and activists packed a Police Fee assembly, questioning why officers didn’t do extra to attempt to defuse the scenario, additionally demanding to know why police waited about two hours to supply medical help.

On Tuesday, Police Fee President Erroll Southers requested the division to report again on why police shootings are up.

To date in 2025, LAPD officers have opened hearth 30 occasions — together with three shootings in three days final week. That compares with 19 police shootings by means of this time final 12 months, police information present.

In response to a Occasions database, the rise is being pushed at the least partially by an increase in what police seek advice from as “notion shootings” — wherein officers shoot what seems to be an unarmed suspect based mostly on the mistaken perception that the individual was armed and posing a menace.

There have already been 10 such shootings up to now this 12 months, in comparison with six in all of 2024, the Occasions database reveals. The database reveals that 18% of all police shootings since 2015 fall into this class. In a majority of the circumstances, the suspects have been carrying reproduction firearms — which aren't thought-about lethal weapons below state regulation, which considers individuals carrying them to be unarmed.

In different circumstances, officers shot individuals who they mentioned seemed to be armed, however have been the truth is holding a towel, a set of keys, a cellphone or a beer bottle. In at the least 19 situations, the individual shot by police wasn’t holding something.