Family of slain Korean American may ask federal attorneys to prosecute police officers

The family of Yang Yong, a Korean American who was shot dead by police officers on May 2, speaks during a press conference at the Korean American Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday. (YONHAP)

The family of Yang Yong, a Korean American who was shot dead by police officers in Los Angeles after he sought help from authorities for mental illness, will ask the US Attorney’s Office to prosecute the police officers involved if local prosecutors fail to charge them.

The three bereaved family members of Yang, his parents and twin brother, held a press conference with their lawyers and the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles at the Korean American Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday local time.

“What the family is asking for is a full investigation by the District Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office,” said the Yang family’s lawyer, Robert Sheehan. “We call on the Los Angeles County District Attorney to prosecute the police officers involved in Yang’s case. If normal procedures are followed, this case will be transferred to the District Prosecutor’s Office, but if local prosecutors don’t charge the officers, we will ask federal prosecutors to charge them.”

Yang’s family is also requesting all the police body camera evidence, phone records, text messages, emails and any other evidence that may help explain Yang’s death, Sheehan added.

Yang, a Korean American who had lived in Los Angeles with his family since childhood, was shot dead by police at his home in Koreatown around 11 am on May 2.

His family had called the Department of Mental Health (DMH) workers to their home to assist Yang, who had had bipolar disorder, in transferring him to a treatment facility, and the DMH workers called the police because Yang had refused to be moved.

In a press release distributed to the media after the shooting incident, the LAPD explained that when the police officers opened the front door of Yang’s house, Yang was holding a kitchen knife and had advanced toward the officers.

However, Yang’s family believes that the police have concealed what really happened because they did not call an ambulance to save Yang immediately after the shooting, did not notify the family of Yang’s death after over an hour had passed and that the scene had already been cleaned up when the police finally allowed access to it.

After distributing a press release last Friday stating that the LAPD was internally investigating the incident, the LAPD has not yet released footage from the body cameras worn by the officers in question, nor has it announced any investigation results or an official position on Yang’s case.

“We once thought the era of police using overwhelming and brutal force was over, but we know now that this is not the case,” the Yang family’s lawyers said. “Nine police officers were deployed to deal with one mentally ill person, and the police have failed to explain why they did not use any of the other numerous methods to subdue someone mentally ill, such as tasers.”

The lawyers also said that all physical evidence at the scene was cleaned out and pointed out that this was an obstruction of justice. They also said that Yang had received help from the DMH and facility treatment several times before when his symptoms worsened and that the family would seek to find out why the DMH staff had called the police the day of the incident.

When a local reporter asked whether Yang had attacked a DMH employee at the time of the incident, the family answered that Yang’s father had been with him and that nothing like that had happened.

“We mourn with the family, Yang’s loved ones and the Koreatown community who are grieving the loss of Yang,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Thursday. “A full investigation is underway to ensure transparency and accountability for this tragedy. The police protocols used when responding to such incidents should also be reexamined.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON ([email protected])