SACRAMENTO — Sacramento Police say the two officers who shot a mentally ill man on Del Paso Boulevard in 2016 “no longer work for the Sacramento Police Department.”
In January, officers John Tennis and Randy Lazoya were cleared of any wrongdoing by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
After the criminal investigation ended, the police department launched its own administrative investigation.
The officers and the department parted ways at the conclusion of that administrative investigation, though it was not immediately known if Tennis and Lazoya resigned or were fired.
Mann, whose family says he was mentally ill, was killed Jul. 11, 2016 after police said multiple witnesses called 911 about a man with a knife acting erratically. According to the DA’s report, Mann was under the influence of methamphetamine, refused police orders to put his knife down and made threatening comments.
Officers said they believed Mann was getting ready to lunge at them when they shot him 18 times.
“For them to gun down my brother in the streets of Sacramento like he was some vicious dog, they need to be held accountable for this,” said Robert Mann, Joseph’s brother, at a press conference held in 2016.
“There was no basis to shoot him at the time,” said John Burris, the Mann family’s attorney.
Burris points to one specific piece of video, clearly showing Mann’s last moments, saying it proves Mann never lunged at officers. The video appears to show Mann running along the sidewalk, parallel to officers running on the street, when he stops and faces them.
“These officers should’ve tried to de-escalate the situation,” said Burris. The DA’s report, however, claims the officers did try multiple times to de-escalate.
