{"id":317087,"date":"2026-05-15T11:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317087\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T11:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T11:20:12","slug":"family-of-18-year-old-man-shot-killed-by-santa-ana-police-officer-files-lawsuit-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317087\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of 18-year-old man shot, killed by Santa Ana police officer files lawsuit \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of an 18-year-old man shot and killed by a Santa Ana police officer in January<\/a> have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and its police department, claiming excessive force and wrongful death, attorneys representing the family announced Thursday, May 14.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in federal court on May 8 on behalf of the son of Victor Lopez through the boy\u2019s mother, Leileen Carrasco,\u00a0 also alleges civil rights violations, negligence and other wrongdoing. The suit seeks unspecified damages.<\/p>\n

The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 28, within a minute or two of the officer attempting to pull Lopez over for an alleged traffic violation.<\/p>\n

Police and the family\u2019s attorneys both agree that Lopez tripped and a gun fell to the ground as he was getting out of the driver\u2019s seat of his car. Where they differ is in the moments before the officer fired.<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing Carrasco, who was Lopez\u2019s girlfriend, and their 1-year-old son accuse the Santa Ana police officer of firing three times at Lopez\u2019s back while he was complying with the officer\u2019s commands by attempting to lie down on his stomach and submit to custody, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Santa Ana police have said that Lopez did not comply with the officer\u2019s commands to not reach for the firearm, leading the officer to fire.<\/p>\n

In a critical incident video put out by the department in March, Santa Ana police spokeswoman Officer Natalie Garcia said the officer attempted to pull Lopez over in his car after the officer observed him speeding near Fifth and French streets. Instead, Lopez continued driving and allegedly ran at least one red light before entering into the parking garage of an apartment complex at 450 East Fourth St. where he lived with his girlfriend, their son and his mother.<\/p>\n

Body-worn camera footage from the officer does not show Lopez as he gets out of the car.<\/p>\n

At one point, Lopez appears to walk toward the officer with his hands raised, then turns around and walks away from the officer while lowering at least his left hand, the video shows. Three shots are fired after the officer is heard yelling, \u201cDo not reach for it!\u201d What Lopez was doing when the officer fires the shots is not seen as the camera\u2019s view of Lopez is blocked by the squad SUV\u2019s spotlight.<\/p>\n

A woman is then heard screaming.<\/p>\n

Carrasco and the couple\u2019s son were sitting in the car and Carrasco saw the events unfold, the attorneys wrote, adding that she watched Lopez bleeding for 10 minutes before paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officer inexplicably fired three rounds at Victor Lopez when he was surrendering and unarmed,\u201d attorneys wrote in court papers, calling Lopez\u2019s actions \u201can unmistakable act of surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said the gun that was dropped was a loaded 9-millimeter handgun.<\/p>\n

They said Lopez was a suspected gang member and possessed what was believed to be fentanyl at the time of the police shooting.<\/p>\n

One of the family\u2019s attorneys, Adant\u00e9 Pointer, did not confirm or deny those allegations, but said, \u201cNone of the alleged conduct police claim he engaged in, or items they claim he possessed, warranted a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the department has not given the family any access to police reports, crime scene photos or their investigation.<\/p>\n

Attorneys representing the family said Lopez worked as a machinist and had spent that day with his girlfriend and son, going to a doctor\u2019s appointment, running errands at Walmart and visiting family in Fullerton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a time when police departments try to shape the narrative by issuing statements before releasing or even reviewing the evidence,\u201d Pointer said. \u201cHis son will need answers, and Victor\u2019s family should not be left with the police department\u2019s story when physical evidence and witnesses tell us the opposite: that an unarmed man was surrendering when he was shot in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan Harrison, another attorney representing the family, demanded that the department name the officer and release the officer\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Garcia, the Santa Ana police spokeswoman, could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of an 18-year-old man shot and killed by a Santa Ana police officer in January have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,1312,138,100,611,609,338,136],"class_list":["post-317087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-police-shooting","tag-santa-ana","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317087","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=317087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}