The family of an Altadena man shot and killed by police in North Hollywood earlier this year despite being unarmed have filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, according to the Daily News.
In a civil complaint, the family of 26-year-old Moises De La Torre are seeking unspecified damages and allege the police had no reason to open fire on him.
On Feb. 24 around 6:45 p.m., a woman was attempting to park her car when a man approached her and allegedly threatened to kill her. The woman reported she saw the man reach into a bag and thought he was arming himself with a gun to act on his threat. She sped away, and called police to report a man with a gun in the area, the investigators said.
Patrol officers located the suspect standing in the southbound traffic lanes. He was facing away from the officers, still holding the bag which the woman had assumed contained the gun, according to the LAPD.
The officers ordered him to drop the bag, but he ignored the commands and then advanced on the officers, repeatedly threatening to kill them, according to the LAPD. He was shot after he continued to advance on the officers and pulled his hand from the bag he was carrying, the department's statement says.
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