{"id":496715,"date":"2026-10-15T07:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496715\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T07:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:08:15","slug":"man-seen-in-video-being-punched-by-santa-ana-police-will-not-face-charges-in-that-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496715\/","title":{"rendered":"Man seen in video being punched by Santa Ana police will not face charges in that arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A man who is seen in a social media video being punched by Santa Ana police officers will not face criminal charges in connection with that arrest, according to the Orange County district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Florentino Lopez, 28, claimed officers used excessive force when they arrested him this month. After the incident, he was charged with resisting arrest and smoking near a school and was cited for being a pedestrian on a roadway, according to Lopez\u2019s attorney, John Kremer.<\/p>\n<p>An undated video circulating on social media shows two Santa Ana police officers slamming Lopez to the ground, striking him while he uses his hands to protect himself and repeatedly yells out, \u201cLawsuit!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incident sparked public outrage and prompted the Police Department to launch an internal investigation. The department has not identified the officers.<\/p>\n<p>                                           <img class=\"image\" alt=\"\"   width=\"473\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792048095_931_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>                  <\/p>\n<p class=\"video-enhancement-title\">Video of man thrown to the ground and beaten by officers during his recent arrest. (Alexzander Lopez)<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the department did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>City officials said during a council meeting last week that they planned to hire an independent investigator to review the officers\u2019 body camera footage. <\/p>\n<p>Kremer said the Orange County district attorney dropped the charges in connection with his arrest on Tuesday  without explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this juncture,\u201d he said, \u201cI will respectfully refrain from engaging in speculation as to the prosecution\u2019s reasons or motives for their decision to dismiss the felony case against Mr. Lopez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an email response to The Times, Kimberly Edds, spokesperson for the district attorney, said prosecutors were instead pursuing a probation violation against Lopez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the totality of the evidence in the case, including the body worn camera video, we determined that pursuing the probation violation was the most appropriate sanction,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Lopez pleaded guilty to carrying an unregistered firearm in public, possessing a concealed, loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, evading a peace officer, reckless driving, hit-and-run involving property damage and resisting a public or peace officer, according to Orange County court records.<\/p>\n<p>Lopez was placed on two years\u2019 probation, which he is now accused of violating after the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-10-06\/video-of-alleged-beating-by-santa-ana-police-spurs-investigation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oct. 1 incident <\/a>with Santa Ana police officers. Kremer said one of the officers knew that Lopez was on probation when they made contact with him for smoking marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Video of that night was captured by Lopez\u2019s younger sister, who was outside with her brother smoking on the front lawn of their parents\u2019 home when the two officers arrived and summoned Lopez out into the street, according to Kremer.<\/p>\n<p>A version of the video shared on social media shows Lopez on the hood of a police cruiser with his hands behind his back, talking to the police officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want to go down?\u201d one of the officers is heard saying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re going to do this? Look at me when you do it then,\u201d Lopez is heard telling the officer.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after, the video shows the same officer yanking him to the ground, punching and kicking him. The second officer is seen kneeling on his stomach. The incident ended when two other officers arrived to restore order, at which point Lopez was handcuffed, Kremer previously told The Times.<\/p>\n<p>Kremer said the video \u201cspeaks for itself\u201d and shows excessive use of force by the officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeedless to say, Mr. Lopez is quite pleased with the dismissal of the case, and he intends to vigorously defend against the alleged felony probation violation,\u201d Kremer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who is seen in a social media video being punched by Santa Ana police officers will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,237,1052,10772,65315,191809,4456,192988,2322,8801,10770,590,105594,21915,11758,5050],"class_list":["post-496715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-arrest","tag-attorney","tag-charge","tag-felony-case","tag-florentino-lopez","tag-incident","tag-john-kremer","tag-officer","tag-orange-county-district-attorney","tag-peace-officer","tag-police-department","tag-probation-violation","tag-santa-ana-police","tag-spokesperson","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496715","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=496715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}