LAPD releases video of officers beating handcuffed jail inmate who later died

LAPD officials on Friday released security camera footage showing a group of officers piling on top of a man and beating him before he died in a San Fernando Valley jail cell, one of two recent incidents that prompted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to call for an independent review of police killings of people in mental distress.

A police spokesperson said officers at Van Nuys Regional Jail used force on Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz, 58, after he was uncooperative and spit on them.

The footage released by the LAPD showed officers converge on Hoyos-Munoz several times after he behaved erratically in his cell in the early morning hours of July 15. He was struck several times while pinned down and in handcuffs.

The officers placed a hood over Hoyos-Munoz’s head after he spit on them, the LAPD spokesperson said, and he was left with the covering on while he lay prone with his hands behind his back.

After leaving the cell, officers returned a short time later to find Hoyos-Munoz unconscious and not breathing, the spokesman said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Shortly after police released the footage of the beating and a separate fatal shooting in Harvard Heights, the mayor issued a statement calling the videos “incredibly difficult to watch.”

“Decades of disinvestment in community-based mental and behavioral health services have left too many Angelenos without access to timely and appropriate care, increasing the likelihood that people in crisis will come into contact with law enforcement,” Bass said. “LAPD officers do not enter the force to become first responders to mental health crises and are not equipped with the proper training to do so.”

She said that the “tragic deaths” of Hoyos-Munoz and Alejandro Luis Garcia — the man who was killed in a police shooting on July 29 — underscored “what can happen when someone in a behavioral health crisis does not get the care they need.”

“When an encounter results in death or serious injury, we must rigorously examine whether our policies, training, tactics, supervision, and accountability systems are sufficient,” Bass said.

She said she was issuing an executive order authorizing “an independent evaluation of officer-involved deaths and severe injuries,” particularly those involving people in crisis.

The review will seek to identify “systemic gaps, strengthen policies and training, and enhance public and officer safety,” as well as study what mental health support officers receive after such critical incidents.

The call that ended led to Hoyos-Munoz’s jailing occurred two days before on the morning of July 13, when Devonshire Division officers were called to his family’s home in the 9700 block of Delco Avenue in Chatsworth, police said. When officers arrived, they determined that Hoyos-Munoz had allegedly stabbed his mother and another relative, resulting in minor injuries. When he refused to leave the home, SWAT officers fired tear gas canisters into the residence and later stormed inside to arrest him.