Two Los Angeles police officers tried to intervene when a colleague intentionally struck a knife-wielding man with a department SUV last year in an attempt to disarm the man — a maneuver that the civilian Police Commission has now ruled was a clear violation of LAPD policy.
Commissioners agreed with Chief Michel Moore and an internal Los Angeles Police Department review board that found the officer, Oswaldo Pedemonte, had broken from policy when he drove into 31-year-old Jonathan Mitrani at a slow speed, knocking him to the ground during an encounter in North Hollywood last February.
Mitrani had been walking toward the vehicle, knife in hand, after leading officers on a slow procession along Burbank Boulevard, during which police struck him several times with a stun gun and a projectile launcher.
Moore concluded that Mitrani appeared intoxicated in police videos and did not pose an immediate threat to Pedemonte as the officer sat “in his police vehicle with the windows rolled up, protected by the ballistic panels,” the chief wrote in a report he presented to the commission. The review board had found that Pedemonte could have driven away if he felt he were in danger, and Moore agreed.