East L.A. — The mother of an 18-year-old man who sued Los Angeles County after her son was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during an East Los Angeles traffic stop in 2019 has died.
Leah Lorraine Garcia had alleged that her son’s shooting was unjustified and that he feared the deputies involved were part of an internal gang in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed November 2021. She alleged wrongful death, assault and battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil rights violations. Deputies Hector Saavedra- Soto and Argelia Huerta were named as defendants; Huerta was later dropped as a defendant.
On Thursday, the 44-year-old San Gabriel woman’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Lynne M. Hobbs notifying the court of the plaintiff’s death. Garcia died June 9 of cervical cancer, according to a copy of her death certificate…