{"id":197135,"date":"2026-02-27T22:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197135\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:36:19","slug":"anaheim-police-shot-and-killed-man-in-mental-health-crisis-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197135\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim police shot and killed man in mental health crisis, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The family of a <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/bodycam-video-shows-fatal-police-shooting-prompted-lockdown-john-marshall-elementary-school-anaheim\/17939714\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:man fatally shot by Anaheim police;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">man fatally shot by Anaheim police<\/a> in September has filed a claim against the city, alleging officers used unnecessary deadly force while he was suffering a mental health episode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Attorneys for the family of Rudy Martinez said the Anaheim resident was in clear distress when police encountered him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We believe in fact the shooting was murder and we are demanding justice,&#8221; Jamal Tooson, an attorney for Martinez&#8217;s family, said at a press conference Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Martinez was armed with a shovel and used it to hit the officer&#8217;s patrol vehicle, body-camera footage shows. Police said Martinez advanced toward the officer in an &#8220;aggressive and threatening manner&#8221; before the shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tooson said the situation warranted a response from mental health counselors or advocates instead of police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;They sent the Anaheim Police Department who shot and killed him within seconds of arrival,&#8221; Tooson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The claim filed is a precursor to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Attorneys say they&#8217;ve viewed body-camera footage of the shooting, and it raises serious questions about how police handled the situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bodycam footage from the responding officer shows Martinez hitting the patrol car with a shovel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;At this point, the officer didn&#8217;t put the patrol car in reverse,&#8221; Tooson said when describing what was seen in the video.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The officer didn&#8217;t consider grabbing non-lethal force, but he grabbed his gun,&#8221; Tooson added. &#8220;When he got out of the car, Rudy walked toward him with the shovel. The officer shot and killed him and left him to die on the street.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Anaheim officials said the response took place near a school that was in session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Our officer responded to a call next to an elementary school in session where, without provocation, he immediately faced a threat to life and safety,&#8221; city spokesperson Mike Lyster said. &#8220;We recognize the importance of mental health intervention. Sadly, there was no time to bring in resources and to do so without putting the lives of mental<br \/>health workers at risk.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a man fatally shot by Anaheim police in September has filed a claim against the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,65116,2093,91790,91789,49681],"class_list":{"0":"post-197135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-jamal-tooson","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mental-health-counselors","14":"tag-rudy-martinez","15":"tag-the-family"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}