DA's report exonerates Sunnyvale police officer who fatally shot knife-wielding teen in crisis
A Sunnyvale police officer who shot and killed a knife-wielding 19-year-old having a mental health crisis acted lawfully after the teen lunged at him, a report from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said.
The shooting happened in March 2024 after the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety responded to a 911 of a partially naked man walking around with a large knife at a mobile home park on Vienna Drive.
Emmanuel Perez Becerra had called 911 on himself and when dispatchers realized it was the suspect on the line, they tried to de-escalate the situation as officers were arriving, DPS said.
Police bodycam video showed an officer in a patrol car and another officer on foot following Perez-Becerra and giving multiple commands to drop the knife. The officer on foot started backing away, as Becerra walked toward him wielding the knife the officer was heard saying, "I'm gonna shoot you ... if you don't stop stop right there."
Officer Kevin Lemos fired twice as Perez-Becerra began moving quickly toward him from about 15 feet away, the video showed. Perez-Becerra was hit twice in the chest and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
In a press release Friday, the District Attorney's Office said the report authored by Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker concluded the shooting was "unquestionably heartbreaking for both the officer and the decedent's family."
"The evidence strongly suggests that Perez-Becerra may have committed 'suicide by cop' due to a years-long battle with depression and schizophrenia," the report said. "His own actions and behavior, however, placed Officer Lemos in the unfortunate situation that left him with, in the words of an independent bystander, 'no choice' but to use lethal force."
Lemos told investigators he was outside of his patrol vehicle because he believed Perez-Becerra was a danger to the neighborhood residents; based on the day and time, it would have been common for adults and children to be out and about in the area, the report said.
The DA's Office said Perez-Becerra had been diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia and had been subjected to emergency psychiatric services holds at least twice in the two years leading up to the shooting.
In January, Perez-Becerra's parents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Lemos and the City of Sunnyvale, alleging in the complaint that their son did not threaten anyone and that the officers who outnumbered Perez-Becerra did not use any other tools to de-escalate the situation.
"The officer had a Taser. He had pepper spray. He had a baton," said attorney Adanté Pointer in a prepared statement. "He never attempted to deescalate the situation, or to use non-lethal force, or to use any other method that might have avoided this needless loss of a young man's life."
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