Officers Attempt to Subdue Man with Mental Illness

Los Angeles: A man with mental illness charged two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and in the subsequent struggle lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. 

On June 3, 2025 at approximately 3:50 a.m., LAPD Newton Patrol Division Patrol Officer Matthew Swan, 11 years and 9 months with the Department, and his partner Officer Daniel Navarro, 1 year and 2 months with the Department, attempted to stop a male Hispanic matching the description of a man with mental illness radio call at Wall Street and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.

The man charged at the police officers.  The officers struggled with the man, attempted to gain control of him and requested a back-up unit.

A group of uniformed Newton Division officers arrived at the scene to assist Officers Swan and Navarro.  The officers struggled to control the man, who was thrashing his body, yelling profanities and attempted to spit on them.  As the officers attempted to gain control of the suspect, he lost consciousness.

The suspect was transported by a Los Angeles City Fire Department Ambulance to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

No officers were injured during the incident.

Force Investigation Division Personnel are investigating this incident.

Comments

[Richard]

Officers of the LAPD should be wary of the condition of people who are labeled as "mental cases" or having "mental conditions". Mostly these have been placed on psychiatric drugs - anti-depressants or anti-psychotics. It isn't their mental problems that make them violent, it's the extraordinary pain inflicted by the drugs that drives them to violence against those around them and finally against themselves. If an officer cannot make sense out of a crime or cannot get any sensible communication or action out of an individual such as this one, most likely these drugs are involved.

[Dis and Dat]

I beg to differ with Richard's comment that it's the drugs that cause individuals to get violent. From working patrol for almost 20 years, my experience has been with individuals diagnosed with mental conditions who failed to take their prescribed medications that causes their family members to call the police.

If the individual take his/her meds as they should, they wouldn't be hearing voices that tells them to kill others or some other crazy thing.

It's a shame because although some of these people should be in locked-down mental institutions for their own good, there just isn't enough room. So they end up drifting through life and when they experience these episodes, the police get called.