LOS ANGELES>> The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a $1.8 million settlement in a pair of lawsuits filed by the family of a schizophrenic woman who was shot and killed at a mental health clinic by Sheriff’s deputies.
Jazmyne Ha Eng, 40, of Rosemead, was fatally shot in January 2012 in the lobby of Pacific Clinic’s Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, where she was a patient.
Robert Finnerty, attorney for Eng’s family, said they filed a wrongful death suit as well as a federal civil rights suit, against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to push for more education and to prevent future incidents.
“Law enforcement needs to reexamine their policies and make sure that officers and deputies are trained to not escalate interactions to the point of the need for deadly force, and Jazmyne’s case was a perfect example of that. She was not known to be violent, she was patiently waiting there for hours until law enforcement arrived,” Finnerty said. “That’s really what the family was fighting for, educating the departments, whether it be sheriff or police, that they need to have … all officers trained in how to interact with people with either mental illnesses or handicaps of another kind.”
Deputies Brian Vance, who shot Eng, and Daniel Esqueda, Jeremiah Song and Allison Melendez said they feared for their safety when Eng, who was 4-foot-9 and weighed 93 pounds, waved a hammer over her head and “charged” at them. In the 911 call for a “5150” psychiatric hold, a Pacific Clinics administrator described Eng as “sitting calmly” in the lobby.
The lawsuits alleged that the deputies “brutally” shot Eng and did not handle the situation appropriately.
The District Attorney’s Office ruled that the shooting was lawful; however, an investigation of the shooting by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Executive Force Review Committee resulted in “administrative action” on two deputies involved, according to a report submitted to the Board of Supervisors.
Assistant County Counsel Roger Granbo declined to comment on the administrative disciplinary actions or any potential policy changes as a result of the settlement. He said the county felt the settlement was fair “under the circumstances.”
“It’s a tragic case, it’s unfortunate how the incident played out. You obviously had a woman wielding a hammer and she ends up being shot and it’s tragic and we had to predict what a jury may think,” Granbo said. “Like any good settlement we think it’s a little high, the plaintiff probably thinks it’s a little low. We think it’s the right result.”
Finnerty said the settlement comes on the heels of a decision by the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday to add a line to its policy on reviewing excessive force cases to take into account an officer’s actions before the shooting occurs.
Nancy Eng, Jazmyne Ha Eng’s sister, said discussions like the one taken up by LAPD this week are a sign that many departments are moving in the right direction. “I’m glad the LAPD Commission is looking at that and hopefully other law enforcement agencies will be able to take similar steps. At the end of the day we are talking about lives here. It is really important,” Eng said. “I hear that different agencies are pursuing more training and that to me is encouraging … but there certainly has to be policy changes as well. … We definitely have a long way to go.”
