Attorneys for the parents of a 40-year-old mentally ill man who was allegedly armed with a knife when he was fatally shot by a Los Angeles police officer near Koreatown in 2024 want a judge to release the personnel records of that officer and a sergeant.
The officer who shot Yong Yang was previously identified by the LAPD as Police Officer II Andres Lopez. The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit are Min Yang and Myung Sook Yang, the parents of the decedent. Their lawyers are seeking the records of Lopez and Sgt. Araceli Ruvalcaba in order to find any past issues of excessive force or other misconduct.
“The credibility and past history of violent behavior and excessive use of force, including the failure to follow proper procedures in dealing with the mentally ill, despite having actual knowledge from prior encounters with the mentally ill of the need to follow them, are a substantial portion of the facts of the case against defendants,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys state in their court papers filed Monday with Judge Peter A. Hernandez in advance of a July 2 hearing…