(KRON) — A 19-year-old Sunnyvale man was combating psychological well being when he referred to as 911 on himself. Emmanuel Perez Becerra was bare from the waist down as he talked to dispatchers and walked round his neighborhood on March 23, 2024, police physique digital camera movies present.
A Sunnyvale Division of Public Security officer shot Becerra to loss of life minutes after he arrived at Plaza Del Rey cell residence park, the place {the teenager} lived. The teenager was holding a big kitchen knife when the officer opened hearth. This week, attorneys representing {the teenager}’s mother and father filed a federal civil rights lawsuit towards the officer and the town.
Becerra’s household stated the teenager’s psychological well being started deteriorating ever because the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Instead of receiving the help he was literally calling out for, Emmanuel was met with lethal violence. The results are heartbreaking and felt by his mother and father in ways that are immeasurable,” stated legal professional Michael Slater of Oakland’s Pointer & Buelna, Legal professionals for the Folks legislation agency.
Main as much as the capturing, the dispatcher seen that Becerra sounded “paranoid,” in keeping with a transcript of his 911 name. Becerra instructed the dispatcher that there was a unadorned man strolling round his cell residence park with a knife, and he declined to reply follow-up questions.
Emmanuel Perez Becerra
When officers arrived, they discovered the teenager strolling via the empty streets of his neighborhood holding a kitchen knife. In line with the lawsuit, Becerra by no means threatened anybody, or any of the officers.
The primary officer on scene, Sunnyvale Division of Public Security Officer Kevin Lemos, jumped out of his patrol automobile and ordered the teenager to drop the knife at gunpoint, the lawsuit states. A second officer remained inside his automobile. Lemos fatally shot Becerra within the chest after the teenager began strolling towards him, attorneys stated.
“The officer had a Taser. He had pepper spray. He had a baton,” stated civil rights legal professional Adanté Pointer. “He never attempted to deescalate the situation, or to use non-lethal force, or to use any other method that might have avoided this needless loss of a young man’s life.”
Emmanuel Perez Becerra is seen moments earlier than he was shot by police. (Picture by way of Metropolis of Sunnyvale)
Slater stated, “Emmanuel had his whole life ahead of him. What happened to Emmanuel underscores why law enforcement should never respond to an individual in a mental health crisis by provoking and escalating the situation, and then immediately using deadly force as a first resort.”
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The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Courtroom, in San Jose, on behalf of the teenager’s mother and father, Esmeralda Becerra Ochoa and Francisco Perez Mondragon. It accuses Officer Lemos of utilizing extreme drive, negligence, and wrongful loss of life.
Sunnyvale police launched physique digital camera movies of the incident final yr.
The teenager’s household beforehand instructed KRON4, “Emmanuel was really a caring particular person who was nonetheless therapeutic from these pandemic impacts, and his alternative to ‘return to normalcy’ together with his loving and supportive household is now gone,” the household stated
