The Los Angeles Police Department Friday released the names of the two officers who were involved in the fatally wounding of a 22-year-old man armed with a butcher knife — who refused repeated commands by police to drop the weapon.
Just before 5 p.m. on Dec. 18, officers were called to Adams Boulevard and Griffith Avenue by witnesses who reported a man was threatening to harm himself and others with a knife, according to a desk officer at the Los Angeles Police Department Operations Center.
When officers arrived they saw the suspect, later identified as Margarito Lopez, 22, armed with a butcher knife, according to an LAPD news statement. Lopez was ordered to drop the knife and ignored the officer’s commands.
“An officer fired a 40mm less-than-lethal launcher foam projectile, at Lopez, which was ineffective,” according to the news statement. “At that time, a second 40mm less-than-lethal foam projectile was fired, followed by an officer-involved shooting. Lopez was struck by gunfire and fell to the ground.”
Police shot the man when they encountered him around 5:10 p.m., said the officer at the department’s Operations Center.
Paramedics rushed Lopez to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The knife Lopez was armed with was recovered at the scene and no officers were injured.
The department later released the names of the officers involved in the shooting as Jose Zavala and Julio Quintanilla, according to the LAPD news statement.
It was the second police shooting of that day involving a man armed with a knife in South L.A.