LOS ANGELES (CN) — A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy pleaded no contest in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, making him the first law enforcement officer to be convicted in an officer-involved shooting in LA County in 20 years.
Andrew Lyons, 39, entered a plea Friday to one felony count of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count of assault under the color of authority, according to a statement by District Attorney George Gascón.
Lyons is expected to be sentenced to two-years’ formal probation, which is the maximum allowed by law, the district attorney's statement said. As part of his probation, he will serve 30 days in county jail.
Lyons was charged in the June 6, 2019, shooting of Ryan Twyman as he tried to drive away when Lyons and another deputy approached his car in a parking lot of an apartment building. According to an incident briefing by the LA County Sheriff's Department after the shooting, the officers were looking for Twyman, a convicted felon on probation, after county detectives found firearms he wasn't allowed to possess during a search of his apartment.
When one of the deputies opened the passenger-side rear door of Twyman's car, Twyman put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking space. The two deputies first opened fire with their handguns, but Lyons got an assault rifle out of the trunk of their patrol car and start shooting with that after Twyman's car had already stopped moving.
Twyman died on the scene. LA County settled his family's wrongful death lawsuit in 2020 for $3.9 million.
“Today, justice has been served for Mr. Twyman’s family who have spent years mourning the loss of their loved one,” Gascón said. “This verdict reflects my office’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that every individual, regardless of their profession, is held accountable for their actions."
Under Gascón, the LA County DA's office has filed more officer-involved shooting cases against officers who were on duty than under the two previous district attorneys combined. Gascón's reform-minded agenda has made him a lightning rod for criticism by more conservative voices in law enforcement since he took office in December of 2020 and led to an unsuccessful recall campaign in 2022.
In a statement released Friday, Lyons' attorneys, Michael Rains and Nicole Castronovo of Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, said, "Charging decisions must be based on the facts and the law. Unfortunately, this Los Angeles County District Attorney conditions charging decisions solely upon political gain. Doing so results in unjustified and unsupported decisions to charge law enforcement officers, irrespective of the facts or the law."
Even with the more widespread outcry over killings of unarmed suspects by police since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, it can still be a difficult hurdle to get a jury to convict an officer for a fatal shooting. In 2021, a jury acquitted Luke Liu, the first officer to go on trial in more than two decades in LA County for an on-duty shooting, of voluntary manslaughter of an unarmed driver at a gas station.
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