LAPD released security footage showing officers beating Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz, 58, who later died in a San Fernando Valley jail cell. This incident, along with a separate fatal shooting, led Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to call for an independent review of police actions involving mental distress cases.
At Van Nuys Regional Jail, officers used force on Hoyos-Munoz after he spat on them. Video showed repeated altercations with officers, culminating in him being struck and restrained with a hood over his head. The footage revealed Hoyos-Munoz laying prone and handcuffed before officers left and returned to find him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mayor Bass stated the videos were “incredibly difficult to watch,” citing years of underinvestment in mental health services, which often brings those in crisis into contact with law enforcement. She noted that officers are not trained as first responders to mental health crises.
Hoyos-Munoz’s case began on July 13, when police responded to a family home in Chatsworth. They alleged he had stabbed relatives, causing minor injuries. After he refused to exit, SWAT used tear gas to apprehend him. Initially calm upon arrival at the jail, he later struggled with officers attempting to handcuff him for safety.
The video showed officers restraining Hoyos-Munoz; he appeared motionless upon their exit. Officers checked and found him initially breathing, but later unconscious. The Medical Examiner has yet to determine his cause of death. An internal inquiry and the state’s In-Custody Death Review (ICDR) Division will investigate the incident.
A separate police video captured Alejandro Luis Garcia’s fatal shooting. Officers approached Garcia, suspected of smashing car windows with a bat. The footage depicted him with the bat but contradicts initial police reports regarding his actions.
The LAPD has not disclosed the identities of the officers involved in these incidents.
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