Family of mentally ill man fatally shot by Long Beach police files federal lawsuit

The family of a mentally ill man who died after a Long Beach police officer shot him at Loof’s Lite-A-Line this past December aounced Thursday they have filed a federal lawsuit against the police department.

The filing, which seeks punitive damages against Police Chief Robert Luna and the officers involved in the shooting, alleges the Long Beach Police Department failed to properly train officers to deal with subjects living with mental illnesses and that officers’ actions on the night of the shooting “escalated a peaceful encounter” and led to an unjustified use of deadly force.

The police department referred a request for comment to the City Attoey’s office. Officials there declined to comment Thursday moing, saying city govement had yet to formally served.

Mharloun Verdejo Saycon, 39, of Carson, died after being shot by police on the night of Dec. 14. The police department reported at the time that officers responded to a report of a man brandishing a knife at the business, scaring customers away.

Loof’s is an arcade-like business where customers play a game that’s described in the lawsuit as a mix of bingo and pinball. Saycon, who lived with his parents and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 23, was known to occasionally visit the gaming parlor.

In the police department’s version of events, the man who was later identified as Saycon was sitting in a chair with a knife in his possession when officers arrived shortly after 10 p.m. on the night of the shooting. Saycon reportedly refused officers’ commands to drop the blade and was shot after officers’ attempts to use a Taser and baton failed to bring him under control.

The new lawsuit filed by his parents tells a similar story, with the key difference being their contention that no one at Loof’s was in any jeopardy because of Saycon’s actions. The filing asserts that Saycon was had a pocket knife in his lap and was watching television when police entered the building, guns in hand.

The complaint reports Saycon had previously used his pocket knife, which had a blade of two to three inches in length, to scratch a game table at Loof’s and showed the knife to another customer. The filing also acknowledges Saycon’s possession of the knife prompted some Loof’s customers to alert a manager, but also contends Saycon never actually pointed the blade at any other customers.

A manager attempted to escort Saycon outside of Loof’s, but Saycon refused to leave the business and another manager called police. Before police arrived, Saycon danced about, used his knife to scratch a glass partition separating an entrance area from the gaming area and then closed the pocket knife and took a seat in a spot facing Loof’s front doors.

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According to the lawsuit’s version of events, the responding officers yelled at Saycon to drop the knife and one officer used a Taser against Saycon when he did not immediately reply to officers’ commanders. The new complaint further contends that an officer struck Saycon in the head with a baton before another officer shot Saycon several times, emptying his weapon’s magazine.

Saycon sustained gunshot wounds to his chest, arm and abdomen and died at the scene of the shooting, according to the complaint.

More to come.