The Long Beach Police Department is delaying the release of body-camera video and 911 dispatch data that could shed more light on what preceded officers’ decision to shoot a man who, according to his family, was in the midst of a mental health episode.
The delay — in response to a public records request filed by the Long Beach Post — comes about two weeks after police killed 38-year-old Brandon Boyd on the steps of a North Long Beach church.
Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish has said officers shot Boyd on Nov. 19 after hours of patient, high-stakes negotiations. Boyd, police said, had texted officers about a “man with a gun” and then refused to talk with officers who were trying to make him relinquish a small-caliber handgun.
Police said they killed Boyd in an exchange of gunfire that left an officer wounded. Video from a news helicopter shows the shooting broke out immediately after officers threw a flash-bang grenade toward Boyd outside the Iglesia De Cristo Miel Church near Atlantic Avenue and 52nd Street.