The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) became one of the deadliest in 2025: in 46 incidents involving gunfire, officers killed 14 people and wounded 23 others.

The number of shooting incidents represents an increase of approximately 70% compared to 26 incidents in 2024. The increase constitutes the highest annual total for the LAPD since 2015. On several occasions, the Board of Police Commissioners has requested that the LAPD provide more information about the circumstances that led to the increase in officers involved in shootings this year, especially considering that the overall rate of violent crime continues to decline in Los Angeles. On Friday, December 12, 2025, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell authorized the release of the names of Argentinian Sergeant Dennis Cunningham and Officer Isaiah Galvez, who were involved in the shooting that resulted in the death of 40-year-old Alex Canizales. Cunningham and Galvez, of the LAPD's West Valley Division in the Topanga area, responded to a call about a deadly assault in the 18900 block of Sherman Way at approximately 12:30 a.m. on December 8. While speaking with a victim who had been shot, officers heard more gunshots. They called for backup and located Canizales at a convenience store in the 18800 block of Sherman Way. Topanga patrol officers, responding to a “Officer Needs Assistance” call, encountered Canizales armed with a handgun, and a police-involved shootout ensued. Canizales was armed, shot, and pronounced dead at the scene. “It’s a sad and unfortunate situation,” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a leading African American civil rights activist and president of the Los Angeles Urban Roundtable. “Most of these shootings are preventable; I mean, it’s not like they don’t have an arsenal of non-lethal weapons and de-escalation tactics, and they show up with a large number of officers.”

Hutchinson emphasized that he has seen police officers in European cities, even when faced with armed suspects, "subdue them, without needing to kill them."

“But not our beloved LAPD!” she exclaimed.

New Strategy

The increase in shootings has generated concern among authorities, including Mayor Karen Bass, and comes despite an overall decrease in violent crime rates in the city during the same period.

“I continue to be deeply concerned about the recent increase in police-involved shootings,” the mayor told La Opinion.

Bass noted that she met with LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and is working with him and the Police Commission to understand the causes of this increase and identify measures that can reduce these incidents.

“I am particularly concerned about how people’s mental health may be influencing these events,” she added. “Too often, our society allows people’s mental health to deteriorate so significantly that they can become victims, not perpetrators, of crime.” The mayor noted that since taking office, she has worked to adopt a comprehensive approach to public safety, investing in strategies to refer service calls involving Angelenos in crisis to trained mental health teams. “And that will continue,” she emphasized. However, Earl Ofari Hutchinson contradicted that statement, noting that mental illness is not the reason “for the continued and questionable police shootings.” “The cause is a mindset entrenched at the top of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that tolerates and protects the use of deadly force in almost every instance,” he asserted. He added that “lax discipline, lack of training, deficient policies and procedures, and impunity contribute to giving the green light to these questionable shootings. If mental illness, supposedly present in victims of police violence, were the true cause, why don't city authorities require that trained counselors, clinicians, and mental health experts be mandatory participants in any intervention or encounter on the street? And has anyone concerned themselves with the mental health—that is, stress, anger management, disorientation, etc.—of the officers involved in these shootings?” Hamid Khan, executive director of the Stop LAPD Spy Coalition, echoed this sentiment, criticizing the LAPD for “its aggressive tactics,” the increase in shootings and deaths at the hands of officers, and highlighting “the failure of de-escalation training.” California leads the nation in civilian deaths at the hands of law enforcement. order

At the national level,Organizations that monitor lethal use of force by police report a high number of civilian deaths in interactions with law enforcement, continuing a multi-year trend of more than 1,000 deaths annually. By the end of 2025, the total number of civilian deaths was 1,379, according to the organization Mapping Police Violence. Of these, 150 were killed by police gunfire in California; 116 in Florida; 113 in Texas; 59 in Arizona; and 46 in Georgia. African Americans in certain areas of the United States are 2.9 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police: 96 deaths per million inhabitants. 45 among Hispanics and 34 among whites

The “weapon” was a lighter

On December 19, 2025, at approximately 3:34 a.m., uniformed officers from the LAPD's Newton Division pulled over a vehicle for a traffic violation near the intersection of Gladys Avenue and 8th Street. The officers approached the vehicle and spoke with the driver and front-seat passenger.

The officers allegedly observed the grip of a handgun between the passenger's legs. The passenger, later identified as 38-year-old Angel Elijah Cruz, was ordered not to move.

While giving instructions to the occupants, the Communications Division informed the officers that the vehicle had been reported stolen.

The officers requested backup and a supervisor. Additional officers arrived, and Cruz was given several orders not to reach for the weapon. The preliminary police report indicates that “Cruz disobeyed officers’ commands and raised the handle of an object that resembled a gun, resulting in a shooting.” Cruz was removed from the vehicle and taken into custody without incident. It was later discovered that the “weapon” was a torch lighter shaped like a pistol. He was taken to a hospital and booked for the crime of brandishing a replica firearm in a threatening manner, causing fear to others, in this case, the police officers. Non-lethal ammunition did result in death. Hollywood: The Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Use of Force Investigations Division is investigating an officer-involved shooting incident that occurred in the Hollywood Division.

On December 18, 2025, at approximately 3:45 p.m., uniformed officers from the LAPD's Hollywood Division responded to a call about a man experiencing a mental health crisis at an apartment complex in the 1400 block of North Bronson Avenue.The person who reported the incident stated that the man was armed with a knife, threatening suicide, “talking to ghosts,” and had said he would kill anyone who came near his door. With additional backup, officers entered the building and approached the man's apartment door. Preliminary information indicates that they announced their presence near the door and heard the subject yelling from inside the apartment, who then abruptly opened the door. “Officers moved away from the door and attempted to communicate with him again,” the LAPD report states. “Shortly thereafter, the subject suddenly came out of the apartment and ran toward the officers armed with a large kitchen knife.” As the subject lunged at the officers, a shooting incident occurred involving Officer Antonio Gomez. A 40mm non-lethal round was discharged almost simultaneously. Although officers provided first aid to the man until Los Angeles Fire Department personnel arrived, he was pronounced dead at a hospital. A kitchen knife was recovered at the scene and collected as evidence. Strong criticism of the mayor: Hamid Khan, executive director of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and a vocal critic of law enforcement, recalled that at the last Police Commission meeting, it was discussed that people who were injured or killed were carrying knives and similar weapons. “But when you start to analyze the use of knives over time, someone who was shot or killed turns out to have been holding a plastic fork,” Khan said. “This confirms the saying, ‘shoot first, talk later.’”

According to the activist, this approach demonstrates “that with the billions of dollars they receive, there was all this paraphernalia about de-escalation, training, etc. Seven or eight years ago, when Matt Johnson was chairman of the Commission, what happened to all the training on how to mitigate incidents?”

The second part, he said, is that the conditions on the ground and the way the programs are set up are based on behavioral surveillance and predictive algorithms.

“When all of that is combined, it gives them [the police] more reasons to use even more violent methods. And instead of de-escalating, they create a whole spectrum of fear, and then they start shooting people,” said Hamid Khan.

“So, first of all, it’s not about 46 officer-involved shootings and 14 deaths, but 69% more than in 2024,“Something we should consider could have been 46 people dead or more,” he stated.

Hamid Khan criticized Mayor Karen Bass for advocating for more money for the LAPD.

“Just three weeks ago, [Bass] went to the Council, and after the current year’s budget was approved and everything was agreed upon, they were already reconsidering the situation, but an arrangement was made to have the budget resubmitted to the City Council to give them additional money.”

The Real Cost

The LAPD secured $1 million to hire more people. In the 9-6 vote, Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, John Lee, Traci Park, and Imelda Padilla voted against, opting to support a $4.4 million funding proposal presented by Lee.

City Manager Matt Szabo reported that the annual cost of the additional officers would amount to approximately $24 million. millions of dollars. The initial $4.4 million would partially cover mid-year hiring costs. If the department hires 480 new officers, the cost would increase by more than $6 million for mid-year hiring and by approximately $33.5 million for recurring annual expenses.

“They keep giving them more money. They keep rewarding them. And, to begin with, when [Karen Bass] took office as mayor, [the police officers] received pay raises of between 25 and 27 percent, and, now with her mental health argument, this is nothing new.”

“Let’s remember that there was one year when LAPD officers shot 48 people, 16 of whom had known mental health issues. The question for Mayor Bass is: what kind of investments have been made when people are experiencing trauma, or, for example, homelessness and fundamental access to mental health care?”

In that way, the activist emphasized that the only response offered to mental health problems is through the courts, and that this was initiated by Governor Gavin Newsom.

In 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom launched a new program intended to revolutionize how counties provide mental health care to some of their most vulnerable residents. The CARE Court program offers a new pathway for the courts to coordinate mental health and substance use treatment, medication management, and housing searches for people suffering from psychosis, including those experiencing homelessness.

“I think Mayor Bass has completely failed to address some of the fundamental problems that the community continues to face,“And to blame someone for police shootings because of a medical condition is absolutely unacceptable because now she’s blaming the victim, a person who already suffers from mental health issues,” he said. “What she’s doing is demonizing mental health. That’s perverse. Mental health is a medical condition. So for her, it’s a failure of political leadership.” This failure, according to Hamid Khan, is the alleged lack of recognition that people are suffering, and the city of Los Angeles is suffering, “continuing to reward the police constantly through programs that, intrinsically and within themselves, have generated more state violence, more police harm, and more negative impact on communities.”