Family accuses
El Monte police officers of brutality in man's death
EL MONTE - A family is accusing El Monte police officers of
brutality in the death of a schizophrenic 37-year-old man who died after being
taken into custody Thursday night.
Family members and attorneys representing them said Khoa Anh
Le died after two El Monte police officers struck him about 20 times with a
flashlight, shocked him four times with a Taser and placed him in a choke hold.
"This is a police brutality case," said Hoang Huy
Tu, an attorney representing Le's family.
El Monte police and Los Angeles County sheriff's officials,
who are investigating, released little information about the incident Friday.
El Monte police officers went to a house in the 2700 block
of Caminar Avenue just before 11 p.m. Thursday in response to a report of a
fight between family members, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said in a
written statement.
"On arrival, the suspect became involved in a physical
altercation with the officers," Deputy Benjamin Grubb of the Sheriff's
Headquarter's Bureau said in the statement.
"During the detention of the suspect, they noticed he
was having medical complications and requested emergency medical
personnel," Grubb said.
Le was pronounced dead at Greater El Monte Community
Hospital at 12:21 a.m. Friday, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Chief
of Operations Craig Harvey said. An autopsy was planned to determined the cause
of death.
Sheriff's officials released no further details, and
sheriff's homicide detectives investigating the case could not be reached for
comment.
El Monte police deferred all further comment to the
Sheriff's Department, including whether the involved officers remained on
patrol Friday or had been placed on administrative leave.
Le's family attorney said Le, who stood 5-foot-6 and weighed
about 160 pounds, had gotten into an argument with his father that escalated to
pushing when his sister called 9-1-1.
By the time two officers arrived at the home, Le had calmed
down, Tu said. The officers, whose names were not released by authorities or
known by Tu, confronted Le as he was sitting on his bed, using his computer in
a small room built inside an attached garage where he lived, Tu said.
The officers demanded to see Le's hands and pulled him from
his bedroom, striking him repeatedly with flashlights, placing him in a choke
hold, kicking him and shocking him with a Taser four times, the attorney said.
Some of the blows and electrical shocks were delivered as Le
was already incapacitated, according to Tu and family members.
"The police kicked him several times while he was down
on his knees," sister Diane Le said.
Tuan Le said when he told an officer to stop striking his
brother, who was not moving, the officer responded with an expletive before
again kicking Khoa Le and shocking him with a Taser.
Suddenly, the officers picked up Khoa Le and carried him out
in front of the garage, where they performed CPR for about 20 minutes before an
ambulance arrived to pick him up, Diane Le said.
Tu said Diane Le told the 9-1-1 operator that her brother
suffered from a mental illness when she placed the call.
Diane Le added that at the outset of the incident when
officers arrived, she heard her brother saying, "Don't touch me."
The family's account contrasted with that of an El Monte
police lieutenant who said earlier in the day that his understanding was that a
Taser was not used in the incident.
Diane Le said her brother had lived with his family in El
Monte for more than 20 years and graduated from Arroyo High School.
"He was very talkative and friendly," she said.
"He was a loving brother to me.
"What the police did was not right. He didn't have any
weapon," Diane Le said.
Tu said he plans to file a claim against the El Monte Police
Department on behalf of Khoa Le's family.
"I want to make sure this type of excessive force does
not happen to anyone else," he said.
"They asked the police to help. And instead they killed
him."