A family is seeking restitution from the city of Downey after their father was fatally stabbed while charging his car outside of the library last year. They say that officials didn’t do enough to make the area around their Civic Center safer, and that precious time was lost when a different suspect stole the ambulance their father was supposed to ride in.

The incident happened back on Sept. 13, 2025, outside of the Downey Public Library, which is located in the 11000 block of Brockshire Avenue. Police arrived and found 68-year-old Reinaldo Lefonts suffering from a stab wound. As they were investigating the incident and searching for the suspect, Lefonts was set to be loaded onto an ambulance for hospitalization. 

At the same time, however, a man unrelated to the homicide investigation stole the ambulance and led police on a pursuit that ended in a crash nearly 15 miles from the library in Alhambra.

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The scene after Reinaldo Lefonts was fatally stabbed outside the Downey Library on Sept. 13, 2025. 

OnScene.TV

Family members say that the incident took valuable time from paramedics who could have saved their father. They believe that not enough was done to make the area surrounding the city’s civic center safe for the public. As such, the family is seeking $40 million in damages from the city. 

“They hired a security firm to go and service other areas, secure other areas of the city, but not their crown jewel, their civic center,” said Alex Galindo, the attorney representing the family. “Certainly a credible anticipation or expectation that it would be a safe place, when in fact it wasn’t and it was a complete, colossal failure on the part of the city.”

Police arrested 23-year-old Giovanni Navarro, an unhoused man with a lengthy criminal history, for the deadly stabbing after he fled towards the nearby high school, which was placed on lockdown until he was in custody. 

The second suspect, a 52-year-old unhoused man named Nicholas DeMarco, was also arrested after the lengthy pursuit. Galindo says that the ambulance was not equipped with anti-theft technology. 

“The paramedics couldn’t transport him to the hospital because the vehicle was stolen by another homeless man,” Galindo said. “You can’t even write this stuff. I mean, it was just so outrageous and so ridiculous for this to happen.”

Family members say that Lefonts had just retired from his job at a University of California, Irvine laboratory three months before the incident. 

In the days after his death, friends and family members held a candlelight vigil outside the library to pay their respects and shine a spotlight on the growing homelessness in the area. 

“Clean up the city and this area,” Galindo said. “Again, this happened right in front of the Downey Library where little children come to learn and read books and study and do homework.”

Downey officials have 45 days to respond to the tort claim. If there is no response, an official lawsuit will be filed, Galindo said.

CBS LA has reached out to the city of Downey for comment on the lawsuit, but has not yet heard back. 

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