In search of her son, who was out walking around alone in the midst of a mental health crisis, Vanessa Perez approached what officers told her was a bad fight scene just a few blocks away her house in La Puente.
For 45 minutes, she was held back from the scene surrounded by sheriffs, police and firefighters, given no details about the identity of the person placed on a gurney, and wondered where the other person involved in the fight was. A voice screamed out “Mom” before falling unconscious again, and her heart dropped in disbelief at the realization that the person on the gurney was her son.
Vanessa Perez’s son Joseph Perez, who was 22 years old at the time, was punched and struck 121 times by seven sheriff’s deputies that day. According to Vanessa Perez, the police report made it sound like her son was “like the Hulk, like he was Rocky Balboa in his prime.” In reality, she said he was only 110 pounds, 5 feet, 4 inches tall and going through a mental health crisis.
Joseph Perez was arrested after the incident for attempting to resist arrest and was in county jail for two years. The deputies involved currently face no consequences, according to Vanessa Perez, and instead have been reassigned and transferred. She said her son needed 19 stitches and 17 staples around his bloodied head and face because of the beating. To this day, he still suffers from seizures, head and neck pain, nerve damage, memory loss and nightmares…