Crime & Safety
Jury Orders LAPD Officers to Pay Millions To Children Of Man They Shot To Death
The panel found LAPD Officers Stefan Carutasu and Dominique Billew responsible for 60% of the $11 million in damages.
LOS ANGELES, CA — A jury has ordered two Los Angeles police officers to pay damages to the two minor children of a man shot to death by police in South Los Angeles in 2024.
The Los Angeles Superior Court panel on Wednesday found LAPD Officers Stefan Carutasu and Dominique Billew responsible for 60% of the $11 million in total damages awarded the offspring of Wilver Blanco Mendoza. Mendoza was apportioned the remaining 40%.
The suit was brought in May 2025 by the children's mother, Migdalia Gutierrez. The plaintiffs were identified only as B.S.B. and W.S.B.G.
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The suit alleged the two LAPD officers unjustifiably shot to death Wilver Blanco Mendoza on a South Los Angeles street on May 19, 2024. Police say Mendoza had been threatening an elderly man with a knife, but the suit contended Mendoza was having a mental health problem and was not a danger to the officers.
"I am proud to have obtained this victory for the Blanco family in this tragic case where LAPD officers played judge, jury and executioner," plaintiffs' attorney Christian Contreras said. "The officers claimed that Mr. Blanco was going to kill them to attempt to justify this shooting, but the jury disbelieved the officers and awarded the family fair and reasonable compensation for their loss."
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In their court papers, the City Attorney's Office contended the shooting was justified.
"The officers responded to an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon broadcast, found Mendoza armed with a knife, and fired as he came off a parked vehicle and closed distance," according to the City Attorney's Office's pleadings.
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