LAPD releases video of officers beating handcuffed jail inmate who later died

LAPD officials on Friday released security camera footage showing a group of officers piling on top of a man and beating him before he died in a San Fernando Valley jail cell, one of two recent incidents that prompted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to call for an independent review of police killings of people in mental distress.

A police spokesperson said officers at Van Nuys Regional Jail used force on Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz, 58, after he was uncooperative and spit on them.

The footage released by the LAPD showed officers converge on Hoyos-Munoz several times after he behaved erratically in his cell in the early morning hours of July 15. He was struck several times while pinned down and in handcuffs.

The officers placed a hood over Hoyos-Munoz’s head after he spit on them, the LAPD spokesperson said, and he was left with the covering on while he lay prone with his hands behind his back.

VIDEO | 07:18

LAPD officers beat handcuffed jail inmate who later died

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The Los Angeles Police Department released a video that shows officers at the Valley jail manhandle an uncooperative inmate who died after he was left handcuffed with a bag over his head while laying prone on the bunk in his cell.

After leaving the cell, officers returned a short time later to find Hoyos-Munoz unconscious and not breathing, the spokesman said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Shortly after police released the footage of the beating and a separate fatal shooting in Harvard Heights, the mayor issued a statement calling the videos “incredibly difficult to watch.”

“Decades of disinvestment in community-based mental and behavioral health services have left too many Angelenos without access to timely and appropriate care, increasing the likelihood that people in crisis will come into contact with law enforcement,” Bass said. “LAPD officers do not enter the force to become first responders to mental health crises and are not equipped with the proper training to do so.”

She said that the “tragic deaths” of Hoyos-Munoz and Alejandro Luis Garcia — the man who was killed in a police shooting on July 29 — underscored “what can happen when someone in a behavioral health crisis does not get the care they need.”

“When an encounter results in death or serious injury, we must rigorously examine whether our policies, training, tactics, supervision, and accountability systems are sufficient,” Bass said.

She said she was issuing an executive order authorizing “an independent evaluation of officer-involved deaths and severe injuries,” particularly those involving people in crisis.

The review will seek to identify “systemic gaps, strengthen policies and training, and enhance public and officer safety,” as well as study what mental health support officers receive after such critical incidents.

The call that ended led to Hoyos-Munoz’s jailing occurred two days before on the morning of July 13, when Devonshire Division officers were called to his family’s home in the 9700 block of Delco Avenue in Chatsworth, police said. When officers arrived, they determined that Hoyos-Munoz had allegedly stabbed his mother and another relative, resulting in minor injuries. When he refused to leave the home, SWAT officers fired tear gas canisters into the residence and later stormed inside to arrest him. He was found kneeling in front of a piano and striking the keys, in apparent distress.

After being taken to the hospital to be treated for exposure to tear gas, he was released and booked into the Valley jail. Body-worn camera video showed Hoyos-Munoz as he was being led into the facility; he appeared calm.

But after being placed in a cell, LAPD spokesperson Capt. Michael Bland said detention officers entered the cell to handcuff Hoyos-Munoz for his own safety. Officers used force several times, including knee strikes, as they dragged a struggling Hoyos-Munoz from his cell and then brought him back in.

When Hoyos-Munoz stood atop the toilet in his cell, officers went back in and placed him on a bunk in a prone position. As one officer stood guard, five others pinned Hoyos-Munoz down, with one officer placing his knee on the man’s shoulder blades.

Video showed Hoyos-Munoz appearing motionless as the officers left the cell, but police said that detention officers who checked on him found that he “appeared to be breathing and exhibited signs of life” for the next 20 minutes.

Only later did they find him unconscious and not breathing.

Three of the jail guards sustained minor injuries and scratches, Bland said.

The Medical Examiner hasn’t yet released a cause or manner of death for Hoyos-Munoz, writing that it was deferring its decision for now.

In addition to the LAPD’s internal inquiry, the incident will be investigated by the state’s In-Custody Death Review (ICDR) Division.

Another video, also released by the Police Department on Friday, captured the frantic moments leading up to the shooting death of 33-year-old Alejandro Garcia.

Bland said officers were dispatched after a 911 caller reported that Garcia had been walking down the street with a baseball bat, smashing car windows. Responding officers caught up to Garcia as he was walking through traffic on Normandie Avenue underneath the 10 Freeway overpass. Officers ordered him to drop the bat, although it’s unclear whether he heard them and he kept walking. As he approached the police squad, Garcia grabbed the bat with both hands and police opened fire.

The footage seems to contradict an LAPD news release issued after Garcia’s shooting, which said that he was swinging the bat when he was shot.

The LAPD did not identify the officer or officers who opened fire.