The family of a man shot and killed by the Los Angeles Police Department in Koreatown earlier this month is demanding answers from the city.
Yong Yang, 40, was killed on May 2 after he allegedly brandished a kitchen knife toward officers who arrived to the 400 block of Gramercy Place on reports of a man experiencing a mental health episode.
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, which initially responded to the reports, told officers that Yang was bipolar with schizoaffective disorder, and police said in a news release that he showed “erratic and threatening behavior.”
Yang’s family, however, claim police sent nine officers to the scene and those officers responded using a “military-style maneuver,” according to the family’s attorney, Robert Sheahen. The family is also represented by Alison Triessl, who also is a legal analyst for KTLA.
“How could this have happened to my beautiful boy?” asked Myung Sook Yang, Yang’s mother. “We tried to do everything right to get him help. We called the Department of Mental Health and instead of helping him, they invited police into our home, and they shot and killed him.”