The parents of one of two men shot to death by sheriff’s deputies in East Los Angeles last year are suing the county for wrongful death and negligence, alleging he posed no threat to the lawmen.
Ruben and Maria Bermudez, the father and mother of 26-year-old Eduardo Bermudez, filed the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. They seek unspecified damages.
“The Sheriff’s Department has yet to receive or had the opportunity to review this lawsuit,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said today.
The department previously stated that one of the two men shot by deputies displayed what appeared to be a handgun, and that the weapon found at the scene was a replica .45-caliber handgun.
The suit states that Eduardo Bermudez was killed in front of his sister’s home on Verona Street.
“At the time of the shooting, decedent posed no imminent threat of death of serious injury…” the suit says.
The LASD previously said deputies responded after a 32-year-old man reported that a passenger in an SUV pointed a handgun at him in the 1100 block of Atlantic Boulevard about 2:20 a.m. Nov. 16.
Deputies spotted the vehicle and tried to stop it.
Both men left the SUV and Eduardo Bermudez, the passenger, pointed what looked like a handgun in the direction of the deputies, prompting them to shoot and kill both men, according to the sheriff’s department.
The driver was identified only as a 57-year-old man.
— City News Service