On Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released a graphic video from July 15, showing officers beating a handcuffed and restrained man multiple times at the LAPD’s Van Nuys jail facility.
Jose Carlo Hoyos-Munoz, 58, appeared to be in crisis, as officers forcefully grabbed, elbowed, and kneeled on top of him using their body weight in three separate incidents. Shortly after, Hoyos-Munoz was found unconscious in his cell and pronounced deceased after multiple lifesaving efforts failed.
He was taken into custody on July 13, after police responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call at a home in Chatsworth. Upon arrival, officers spoke to two family members who were allegedly cut with a knife by Hoyos-Munoz.
His mother had lacerations on her arm and told police, “He has lost his mind. He’s gone crazy."
Following an eight-hour standoff and a Crisis Negotiation Team's unsuccessful attempts to coax Hoyos-Munoz to leave the house, SWAT officers used tear gas and took him into custody inside the house.
Hoyos-Munoz was taken to a local hospital and treated for tear gas exposure, according to the LAPD.
Approximately 20 hours after he was booked at the jail, officers entered his cell to remove a visibly distressed Hoyos-Munoz for fingerprinting. The department claimed he was "non-compliant" and "combative" before six officers forcefully grabbed and pinned him onto the ground.
In the video, one officer is shown kneeing him multiple times, as other officers attempted to handcuff him.
Officers placed Hoyos-Munoz on a restraint chair, ankles tied with a hobble restraint, and moved him to the booking stall for fingerprinting.
Once there, the department cited Hoyos-Munoz’s resistance as the reason officers used “firm grips” and “elbow strikes” to “gain compliance.” He was also forced to wear a spit hood over his head after allegedly spitting on an officer.
The LAPD did not acknowledge that officers used “firm grips” and “elbow strikes” in an earlier statement released in July.
It took nine officers to fingerprint Hoyos-Munoz before returning him to his cell.
Officers kept him handcuffed inside his cell in an attempt to “deescalate” the situation. But shortly after, officers noticed Hoyos-Munoz standing on the cell's toilet.
“Recognizing the increase for injury” this could cause, officers entered the cell to remove his handcuffs for his safety.
The video shows that five officers grabbed and threw him onto the cot face down, before piling on him for the third time.
An officer is shown putting his weight into his knee and driving it into Munoz's back and neck, pressing the man’s face into the cot for approximately one and a half minutes. An additional officer watches on as the others continue to use “firm grips” and “body weight” to remove the handcuffs.
An officer is shown putting his weight into his knee and driving it into Munoz's back and neck, pressing the man’s face into the cot for approximately one and a half minutes.
They left him naked from the waist down while his hands remained on Hoyos-Munoz’s back in the handcuffed position. At one point, the video zooms in, showing the small breaths Hoyos-Munoz took as “signs of life,” observed by officers checking on him. The close-up also shows deep red marks on his wrists from where the handcuffs were placed earlier.
He lay in the same position for approximately 20 minutes until officers re-entered his cell and found him unconscious and not breathing. Attempts to render aid by officers and Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced deceased.
The department hasn’t provided a cause of death, nor did it release the names of the officers involved. The officers’ faces were also blurred, which is unusual.
Recently, the department blurred—and continues to hide—the name of an officer responsible for fatally shooting a family dog in June.
The Los Angeles police released another video on Friday of officers fatally shooting Alejandro Luis Garcia, who also appeared to be in a mental health crisis. Garcia was armed with a bat and allegedly swung at passing cars. Breaking with the norms again, Chief Jim McDonnell hasn’t named the officers who shot Garcia.
The department hasn’t provided a cause of death, nor did it release the names of the officers involved. The officers’ faces were also blurred, which is unusual.
Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement on Friday saying the footage was “incredibly difficult to watch” and announced an executive directive calling for an independent review into the deaths and injuries of people in a mental health crisis at the hands of police.
"This independent review will aim to identify systemic gaps, strengthen policies and training, and enhance public and officer safety,” the statement reads.
Bass provided no additional details about the independent review.
This is the department's second in-custody death this year and the 19th since 2023, according to LAPD data.
