Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Officers who shot and killed a 15-year-old at a Santa Ana apartment earlier this month were “trigger happy” and never attempted to de-escalate the situation despite local law enforcement being well aware of the boy’s mental health issues, attorneys for the teen’s family alleged on Tuesday, June 23.
Jaden Michaca’s mother — who was allegedly also struck in a thumb by the police gunfire as she watched Jaden get shot to death — was joined by a dozen or so family members and supporters in a news conference in front of the Santa Ana Police Station as her attorneys announced that a claim has been filed against the city of Santa Ana accusing two officers of neglect.
“They killed a 15-year-old child, they blasted him to kingdom come,” said Luis A. Carrillo, one of the attorneys representing the family. “Unfortunately, I have to say it that way because that is what happened. In my opinion, these officers were trigger-happy cops.”
Asked about the claim and the allegations, Officer Natalie Garcia, a police spokesperson, noted that “the investigation remains ongoing and details surrounding the incident are limited.”
But Garcia denied that the officers were responding to a request for mental health services — as Jaden’s family painted it. Instead, the officer said, police were responding to a family disturbance in which Jaden had allegedly stabbed his mother’s boyfriend with a knife.
Police have said officers went inside and found the boy still armed and gave him commands to put the weapon down, but he refused, leading to the shooting. They have not disclosed if one of more officers fired or hit the boy.
(Police previously indicated that Jaden was 16, but his family says he was 15).
Jaden’s mother, Mirabel Michaca, said her son — who was diagnosed as bipolar — had been struggling with his mental health for two years. The family had called law enforcement at least 10 times previously, the mother said, when officers aided by mental health workers deescalated the situation and got him treatment, she said.
On June 13, the mother said 911 was again called as she had been told to do by prior responders to report that the boy was having a mental health emergency. Before police arrived, the mother said her boyfriend had tried to take a knife away from Jaden and accidentally got cut in the process.
The mother said the two officers who responded immediately opened fire. The mother acknowledged that Jaden was holding a knife but denied that he was a threat to her or the officers. She denied that the police ordered her son to drop the knife and that he ignored them.
“I yelled to the cops, ‘Please do not shoot! Please do not shoot! My son is having a mental-health crisis!” the mother said. “Taze him, but do not shoot!’ I was standing next to him and they did not care. Everything happened in the blink of an eye.”
She wore a splint on the thumb of her right hand during the news conference.
Dominique Boubion, one of the attorneys representing the family, described the fatal shooting as “100 percent preventable.”
“There is no reason two officers should come to a home — called to help — and just open the door and start shooting,” Bourbon said. “It is totally unacceptable.”
The police account, while limited, has differed from the family description of what occurred leading up to the shooting.
According to police, the mother’s boyfriend called 911 and told a dispatcher that Jaden was under the influence, vandalizing property and had stabbed him with a knife.
The officers who arrived at the apartment could hear an argument between Jaden and his mother, said Officer Garcia, the police spokeswoman. The officer forced open the apartment door, Garcia said. The officers “made contact” with Jaden, Garcia said, who “remained armed with a knife.”
The boy died at the scene.
Family members described Jaden as always willing to help those around him and loved collecting Pokemon.
Santa Ana police officers are outfitted with body cameras. Video of police shootings is generally released to the public at some point.
A claim must be filed against a public agency before a lawsuit.