Three daughters of a man killed in an East Los Angeles area deputy-involved shooting last fall that also left a deputy wounded are suing Los Angeles County.
Ivan Pena, 42, of Los Angeles, died at the scene of the shooting, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 24 in the 3600 block of Meisner Street in City Terrance, according to the coroner’s office and the sheriff’s department.
The three children suing are minors and their Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed on their behalf Monday by their guardian, according to the suit, which alleges negligence, assault and battery and civil rights violations.
“Without cause and based partly on racial animus, (deputies), shot (and) ultimately killed (Pena),” the suit alleges.
But then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell stated shortly after the shooting that the wounded deputy and his partner saw a vehicle at the location with three people inside.
“As they began to interact with the people in the car, one of the deputies spotted something that was suspicious,” McDonnell said at a news conference in the hours after the shooting. “At that point, one of the individuals in the vehicle got out and an altercation ensued. The suspect came up with a gun. The deputy and the suspect were engaged in an altercation for the gun.”
The deputy’s partner saw what was happening and approached the scene with her weapon drawn and the deputy-involved shooting occurred, McDonnell said.
A weapon was recovered at the scene, he said.
Pena was a passenger in the rear of the vehicle, sheriff’s Lt. Rodney Moore previously said. The two other people in the car — a 42-year-old man and a 30-year old woman — were detained by deputies, but neither took an active role in the altercation, sheriff’s officials said.
According to the lawsuit, Pena was “simply talking to friends in the car” and the deputies “concocted” a version of events to falsely claim that Pena fired shots at them, the suit states.
The wounded deputy was a field training officer with more than 10 years with the department and his partner is a trainee with about three years on the job.