Family Of Man Killed By Police Sue Santa Ana

SANTA ANA, CA — The fiancee and the son of a man shot to death by Santa Ana police have filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city, attorneys said Thursday.

Leileen Carrasco filed a lawsuit against the city May 8 alleging excessive force, wrongful death and negligence in the killing of 18-year-old Victor Lopez on Jan. 29.

City officials declined to comment Thursday.

Lopez, who worked as a machinist, was driving home to his apartment at 450 E. Fourth St. after spending the day visiting relatives with his fiancee and their 1-year-old son.

A Santa Ana police officer "pursued Mr. Lopez into the parking garage of his own apartment complex following a minor traffic infraction," the lawsuit alleges.

Lopez got out of the car and complied with officer orders, but a gun he had on him fell to the ground as he got out, according to the lawsuit. Lopez continued obeying officers and raised both hands up, faced the officer and then turned around to start "lowering himself toward the ground in an unmistakable act of surrender -- a posture his girlfriend recognized as his attempt to prone out and submit to custody," the lawsuit alleges.

In a news conference in January, Carrasco said, "I watched him fall and he tried to get up to do what they wanted him to do and then I watched the officers shoot him in the back not once but three times as he was going to the ground ... I will hear those gunshots for the rest of my life, and one day I'm going to have to explain to our child why his daddy is no longer here."

The lawsuit alleges Lopez was shot three times in the back and succumbed to his wounds.

Carraco and their son were in the car just feet away when the officers opened fire, according to the lawsuit.

"Ms. Carrasco watched the father of her child bleed to death on the garage floor," the lawsuit alleges. "The officer did not render any first aid. Paramedics did not arrive for approximately 10 minutes."

The lawsuit also notes that Santa Ana police issued a statement "characterizing Mr. Lopez as having turned back toward the firearm and ignored officers' orders. That account is contradicted by the eyewitness account of Leileen Carrasco, who observed the entire sequence from feet away, and by the physical evidence: three bullet wounds to the back of a man who was bending down to the ground in surrender."

— City News Service