Source: KTLA screenshot
The “historic” conviction last week of a former police officer in California for killing an unarmed Black driver who was shot in the back multiple times prompted a mixed response as the defendant received what appeared to be a light jail sentence.
On one hand, one prominent racial justice group said, former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Andrew Lyons on Friday became the first person to be found guilty in an officer-involved shooting in more than two decades in Los Angeles County.
On the other hand, though, Lyons was sentenced to just 30 days in jail for killing Randy Twyman, 24, in a parking lot in 2019.
Lyons and another deputy responded to an apartment complex in Willowbrook and approached a parked vehicle where Twyman was sitting. He had been named in a felony warrant for alleged weapons violations and the white Kia sedan he was in matched a description provided by detectives, officials said at the time.
During that deadly encounter, Twyman put the car in reverse and both deputies opened fire before the vehicle came to a stop nearby. After the vehicle stopped moving, Lyons retrieved his his semiautomatic assault rifle and shot into the car, killing Twyman, who was unarmed. His passenger was uninjured.
Sheriff’s officials said the deputies fired some 34 rounds during the shooting and a coroner’s autopsy later revealed Twyman had been shot six times, with half of his wounds to the back.
Twyman was accused in death of using his car as a “weapon.”
It was in that context that Lyons was able to plea down his original charge of manslaughter to just one felony count of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count of assault under the color of authority.
