One-in-three people shot by LA police mentally ill

LAPD study reveals a three-fold increase in shootings involving those with mental health issues

Protesters at Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters rally to express their anger over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed homeless man
Protesters at Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters rally to express their anger over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed homeless man Credit: Photo: Getty Images

More than one-third of all people shot by the Los Angeles police last year were mentally ill, one of the force's own reports has admitted.

The finding - in a detailed study by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) - follows criticism in the city and nationwide of violent episodes where officers opened fire on suspects with mental health problems.

Fourteen of 38 individuals shot by LAPD officers in the 12 months up to the end of December had experienced some form of mental illness, according to the report, Use of Force Year End Review 2015 - a near three-fold increase over the previous year, when there were just five such shootings.

Last year’s victims included Brendon Glenn, a 29-year-old homeless man who died in Venice Beach last May after being shot in the back by an officer while he struggled on the ground with another policeman. Mr Glenn was unarmed and had a history of drug and alcohol addiction.

Charlie Beck, Los Angeles’ police chief, recommended in January that the officer who shot him should face criminal charges, the first time he has urged the prosecution of one of his own officers for an on-duty shooting.

Most of those shot were Latinos, who make up 48 per cent of the population of Los Angeles. But a disproportionate number, eight - or 21 per cent of the shooting victims - were African-Americans. Blacks comprise around nine per cent of the ethnically diverse city’s nearly four million people.

Many of the mentally ill on the receiving end of police gunfire are homeless. Last March, a Cameroonian man,Charly Leundeu Keunang, was shot dead on Skid Row - a downtown area where many of the city’s homeless congregate - after a confrontation with officers that broke out when one tried to dismantle his tent, which had been pitched on a pavement. Police said they believed the man had reached for an officer’s gun after taser shots had failed to subdue him.

His family subsequently filed a claim for US$20 million (£14.4 million) damages against the city of Los Angeles, saying officers initiated the incident.

There are more than 12,500 chronically long-term homeless in Los Angeles, according to latest figures, the highest number of any American city. Roughly half of the homeles population is black.

The LAPD report analysed police use of force in the city over the past five years.

People look at a mural of Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old mentally ill black man, at the site where he was shot and killed by two LAPD officers

Half of the 38 individuals shot were themselves carrying a gun at the time of the incidents, which also saw 11 police officers injured. Twenty-one of the suspects died from their wounds.

The fatalities included eight known to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the report said. Twelve were Hispanic, while blacks and whites each accounted for four of the others killed. The remaining individual was described as “Asian/Pacific Islander”.

Despite the catalogue of violence, the report said police use of force was rare - happening in 1,924 times out of more than 1.5 million contacts between officers and public, or 0.13 per cent. Shootings were rarer, accounting for just 0.003 per cent of all incidents.