Anaheim officials have agreed to pay out a nearly $6 million settlement to the four children of Brandon Lopez, an unarmed 34-year-old Santa Ana man who was shot and killed by Anaheim police officers in 2021.
His family says Lopez was having a mental health crisis when he was killed.
Lopez is the cousin of Santa Ana City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez, who has criticized how police handled the situation that started in Anaheim and ended in Santa Ana.
[Read: Santa Ana Councilman Watches Police Kill Cousin He Said Had Mental Health Crisis]
In September 2021, Anaheim police officers shot Lopez 22 times after using a flash bang to get him out of the car following a stolen vehicle pursuit and an hours-long standoff along Santa Ana Boulevard.
While the Santa Ana Police Department was on scene, Anaheim officers were ultimately heading up the response.
[Read: Why Did Santa Ana Police Hand Over Scene to Anaheim PD the Night of Brandon Lopez Shooting?]
Anaheim authorities, in a public video about the incident, said they mistook an empty water bottle in Lopez’s bag for a gun. Lopez was unarmed.
While Lopez’s kids have agreed to the settlement that was finalized last month, his parents Johanna and Antonio Lopez – the main plaintiffs – have not agreed to settle.
Johanna Lopez and lawyers for the family did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning.
In a Tuesday evening email, Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster said city officials decided to settle the claim in January for the best interest of the city and Lopez’s family.
“While we never want to see the loss of life involving our police, we stand by our officers’ actions in what was a difficult situation with a reasonable fear of a gun being involved,” he wrote.
“We look at all claims on their own and continue to evaluate the other claim. We don’t have any updates to share at this time on next steps with the court system.”
Each of Brandon Lopez’s four kids in the case are slated to get $1.45 million each – $5.8 million total – with some of that money going to pay the lawyers, according to the settlement.
Hernandez and Lopez’s family watched the shooting unfold in front of them.
Officer-worn body camera footage showed Hernandez attempting to inform police officers that Lopez was having a mental health crisis.
Lopez’s family filed a federal civil lawsuit against the city of Anaheim, the city of Santa Ana, the police chiefs in both cities at the time and the four officers that shot him.
Last year, a judge dismissed the City of Santa Ana and former Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin from the lawsuit.
And in November, State Attorney General Rob Bonta cleared the police officers who killed Lopez, saying there wasn’t enough evidence that officers didn’t fear imminent death or injury.
[Read: AG Bonta Clears Anaheim Officers Who Killed Brandon Lopez]
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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