{"id":488736,"date":"2026-10-08T03:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488736\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T03:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:02:14","slug":"santa-ana-council-orders-external-review-after-video-shows-man-being-punched-by-police-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488736\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Ana council orders external review after video shows man being punched by police \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Santa Ana City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire an independent investigator who will report directly to the council to examine a use of force incident on Oct. 1 involving two Santa Ana Police Department officers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decision came amid public outcry and anticipated litigation over the encounter, which was captured on video by a relative of Florentino Lopez Jr., who is shown being struck multiple times by police officers while being detained on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/p>\n

Santa Ana City Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez weighs in on the city\u2019s investigation into a police use of force arrest, calling on District Attorney Todd Spitzer to drop the charges against Florentino Lopez and hold police officers accountable, during a council meeting at Santa Ana City Hall on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the public hold up signs critical of the Santa Ana Police Department following a use of force investigation stemming from an arrest on October 1 during a city council meeting in Santa Ana on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the public hold up signs asking for \u201cjustice for Florentino Lopez,\u201d following a police use of force investigation stemming from his arrest on October 1, which was caught on video, during a city council meeting in Santa Ana on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Rhoades of Huntington Beach, a private security guard, urges the Santa Ana City Council to hold the officers involved in a violent arrest on October 1 accountable, during the public comments portion of a council meeting at Santa Ana City Hall on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/p>\n

Santa Ana city council members discuss a police use of force investigation into a violent arrest that was caught on video, while members of the public hold up signs critical of the police officers, during a council meeting at Santa Ana City Hall on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the public hold up signs critical of the Santa Ana Police Department following a use of force investigation stemming from an arrest on October 1 during a city council meeting in Santa Ana on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 6<\/p>\n

Santa Ana City Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez weighs in on the city\u2019s investigation into a police use of force arrest, calling on District Attorney Todd Spitzer to drop the charges against Florentino Lopez and hold police officers accountable, during a council meeting at Santa Ana City Hall on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said any costs for the investigator beyond her and the city manager\u2019s authority to approve would need to be placed on a future council agenda and would be made available for public view.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make sure that we communicate that this is a priority for the city, and it needs to be done quickly,\u201d Carvalho said.<\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s closed session, Mayor Valerie Amezcua said the council voted to release the officers\u2019 identities and relevant body-worn camera footage if an external review determines they caused significant physical harm. Separately, the council authorized the police chief and city manager to hire an outside investigator, if they determine one is warranted, to conduct an administrative review typically handled by SAPD\u2019s Internal Affairs division.<\/p>\n

The footage, which has been widely circulated on social media<\/a>, shows two SAPD officers detaining Lopez, a 28-year-old Santa Ana resident, near his home and placing him against a patrol car. The video then shows Lopez being thrown to the ground and punched multiple times by at least one officer while family members repeatedly asked the officers to stop. Relatives who witnessed the incident accused the officers of striking Lopez with a knee to the face and pressing a knee on his neck. They also allege police placed a spit mask over his bleeding face even though he wasn\u2019t spitting.<\/p>\n

Amezcua called the use-of-force video \u201cdisturbing\u201d in social media posts and called for the independent review and investigation.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the dais Tuesday night, she said that while she understands SAPD\u2019s Internal Affairs will conduct an investigation \u201cin accordance with department policy and state law,\u201d she believes an outside independent investigation should be conducted for transparency, adding, \u201cI respect the process and don\u2019t want to interfere with it, but I have a responsibility to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an investigation concludes that action should be taken against the officers, I will support it,\u201d she added. \u201cWe cannot allow the actions of one or two officers to impact the good work done by others.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Kremer, the attorney representing Lopez, said he plans to challenge the four charges made against Lopez in a felony criminal complaint filed Monday, Oct. 5, by the Orange County District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a>. (The complaint names the officer by last name, but The Orange County Register is not able to independently verify their full names.) Lopez has been charged with a felony count and a misdemeanor count for resisting officers, jaywalking, and smoking marijuana near a school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just nuts,\u201d Kremer said in a phone call Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s based on the narrative presented by the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kremer said Lopez had been in the backyard of his home in a residential neighborhood before an SAPD patrol car drove by and officers asked him to approach the vehicle. Lopez, who was on probation, was \u201cdoing really well\u201d and helping his dad with construction, according to Kremer. He said Lopez complied with the officers and approached them down the street, adding that as far as he knows, there are no schools nearby.<\/p>\n

He also said he doesn\u2019t understand why officers later applied a spit mask, since Lopez was only covering up from being hit in the face and head.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s council meeting, Councilmember Jonathan Hernandez apologized directly to Lopez. Hernandez also demanded that Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer drop the \u201cbogus charges\u201d and called for charges against the officers.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Thai Phan, an attorney by trade, said she regularly reviews police body-cam footage as part of her day job. She directly addressed audience members at the council meeting holding \u201cfire these officers\u201d signs, explaining the constraints on terminating an officer under the Peace Officers\u2019 Bill of Rights. She said the state \u201cneeds to change POBAR\u201d and committed to personally filing a records request to force the records\u2019 release.<\/p>\n

Phan also praised the decision to use a third party for the internal affairs review.<\/p>\n

The unanimous vote followed roughly three hours of closed-session discussion that Councilmember Jessie Lopez said at times became heated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us even yelled at each other,\u201d she said. Lopez added that what she saw in the video \u201cinfuriated\u201d her and that it was difficult to hear the cries of family members in the background. She said there was \u201cabsolutely no reason\u201d for the situation to escalate the way it did.<\/p>\n

Kremer said he is asking the court for the body-worn camera footage. A pretrial settlement conference is scheduled for Oct. 13.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Santa Ana City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to hire an independent investigator who will report directly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,138,734,1071,23,100,611,338],"class_list":["post-488736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-law-enforcement","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-santa-ana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488736","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=488736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}