Ex-LA County Assemblyman Charged with Manslaughter in 2019

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with first degree manslaughter for killing an unarmed man while trying to flee in a car, prosecutors said Thursday.

Andrew Lyons, who sheriff’s officials said was released from the sheriff’s department after the 2019 shooting, also faces two assaults with a semi-automatic firearm, according to the LA County District Attorney’s Office. A second MP involved in the shooting, Christopher Muse, was not charged.

The charges, which are extremely rare in police shootings, were largely the result of surveillance camera footage clearly capturing the brief, violent encounter between the MPs and 24-year-old Ryan Twyman.

“The family is surprised and overjoyed,” said Brian Dunn, an attorney representing Twyman’s family. “They had come to terms with the belief that once again the criminal justice system would not be there to honor their son’s life, and hearing the news after all these years reassures the family that the criminal justice system can indeed work for them . ”

A few weeks before the June 6, 2019 shooting, gang investigators had found illegal weapons and searched for him during a search of Twyman’s home when he was not there, according to a sheriff’s department report released at the time. Investigators learned Twyman drove a white Kia Forte and was visiting an apartment complex in Willowbrook, the statement said.

Video footage shows Lyons and Muse pulling into the parking lot near East 132nd and South San Pedro Streets around 7:30 p.m. They draw their guns and approach a parked vehicle with tinted windows matching the description of Twyman’s car.

While Lyons moved to the driver’s side, Muse went to the rear passenger door, opened it, and peered inside. Twyman, who was inside, quickly started the car and began reversing, video shows. Muse was hit by the open door and backed away as the door pushed him.

Lyons, who had moved to the front of the car, and Muse both opened fire and continued firing as the car rolled backwards in a slow circle before coming to a stop.

Lyons retrieved a rifle from his squad car, got behind a parked truck, and continued firing. In total, the deputies fired about 34 shots at the car.

Twyman was hit multiple times and died. A passenger in the car was not injured.

The shooting appeared to hurt a sheriff’s department politics which instructs MPs not to shoot at a moving vehicle or its occupants unless a person in the car “directly threatens a department member or other person present with deadly force by means other than the moving vehicle”.

The policy states that the vehicle itself “must not present a presumed threat justifying the use of lethal force.”

LA County has settled a $3.9 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Twyman’s family in 2020. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said earlier this year that one of the deputies involved in the shooting had been fired, but didn’t say which one. The other lawmaker was suspended for 30 days, Villanueva said.

“Protecting public safety is the highest responsibility for the entire law enforcement community. That’s primarily true of those who have vowed to protect it,” LA County Dist. atty George Gascón said in a statement. “Police work is difficult and exhausting work, but it doesn’t relieve anyone of legal responsibility – especially when a human life is lost.”

The criminal case against Lyon is Gascón’s second against a police officer for an on-duty shooting. David Chandler, a Torrance police officer linked to a scandal involving racist text messages exchanged by multiple officers, was charged last year with assault in a 2018 incident in which he shot and killed a man armed with a knife and had been injured when the man allegedly walked away from him.

Prior to this case, criminal charges were filed against a sheriff’s deputy for the 2016 killing of an unarmed man. This was the first time in more than two decades that LA County prosecutors had attempted to convict a police officer in a shooting. In November MP Luke Liu was acquitted.

The charges against Lyons in Twyman’s death come two months after Villanueva criticized Gascón for needing his office to decide whether to bring charges against MPs in dozens of on-duty shootings dating back to 2016.

Villanueva said there was “no excuse at all” for the slow pace, as prosecutors are still reviewing one case each from 2016 and 2017, two cases from 2018 and a dozen from 2019, he said.