hello i'm captain stacey spell commanding officer of media relations division with the los angeles police department this critical incident community briefing is intended to provide you with information about an officer-involved shooting that occurred in rampart division in the city of los angeles on april 2nd 2021 at around 309 pm you're about to see relevant video footage and learn about other evidence and police procedures related to the case so you can have a better understanding of what occurred based on what we know right now the lapd conducts very thorough use of force investigations which typically require investigators to interview multiple witnesses view numerous hours of video footage and analyze a significant amount of forensic evidence we're still at the very early stages of this investigation which can often take up to a year to complete and our understanding of the incident may change as this additional evidence is collected analyzed and reviewed we also do not draw any conclusions about whether the officers acted consistent with our policies and the law until all the facts are known and the investigation is complete a word of caution the images and information you're about to see may be disturbing when a police officer uses force to arrest a suspect or defend against an attack it can be graphic and difficult to watch in addition there may be strong language used by those shown in the video viewer discretion is advised especially for young children and sensitive viewers around 2 57 pm officers assigned to rampart division responded to a shooting in progress radio call at macarthur park here's the 911 call on corresponding radio broadcasts from this incident okay i'm at sixth in alvarado there's a lady with a gun she's five i'm calling him calling 9-1-1 right now she's shooting randomly in the park yes uh caucasian lady short pants pink top black and white baseball cup blonde hair she's got a carrying bag and she's headed uh south in the middle of the park right near the lake she's been shooting right now i'm shooting at progress six and alvarado sixth in alvarado so that's because of female white five seven thirty or forty years of blonde hair wearing a pink shirt white shorts blue jacket tied at her waist white tennis shoes arnold's a 45 caliber handgun shooting at the birds suspect is walking south down in the middle of the park near the lake go through incident two eight five six ready two four five an air unit arrived overhead the suspect pointed her handgun at the air unit before continuing to walk through the park patrol officers arrived on scene and tracked the suspect as she walked along the shoreline of the lake that suspect was later identified as michelle renee larita the officers attempted to communicate with lauricha giving her commands to drop the gun despite the officer's commands lorichi appointed the handgun at the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred after being struck by gunfire loricia dropped her handgun and continued to walk eastbound ignoring officer's commands a 40-millimeter less lethal launcher was deployed lauricha entered the lake where she remained for over two hours she eventually exited the lake and was taken into custody the 40 millimeter less lethal device fires a foam projectile round the round strikes a person's body and is intended to cause pain and while there may be bruising it is designed to be non-penetrating by distributing energy over a broad surface area body worn video cameras are used by most officers assigned to field duties they are worn at chest level and capture a general perspective within line of sight from that angle the angle of the camera prohibits viewers from seeing everything the officers saw and experienced upon activation both audio and video will turn on however body worn video cameras have a buffer of video without audio from the previous two minutes prior to activation this feature is designed to capture incidents that occur suddenly where an officer doesn't immediately activate the camera here's body worn video from the officers involved in this incident she's right there she still got the gun or not i got her [ __ ] [Music] i got her dead to right so somebody's gone in the area dude she's still armed or not hey she's still armed hey he's still armed or not over here is you see her oh i can't see her from here [Music] hey you guys [Music] uh [Applause] is hey i'm gonna move that tree i don't have angle power stop hey okay you're fine don't don't point drop it okay okay drop the gun drop the guard turn around turn around turn around turn around alvarado don't reach for the gun don't do it push it over i don't know push it off hey start walking turn me away from the gun turn around hey ma'am just come over here walk away from the gun the gun is by the bag right by the bag yes ma'am walk to your side just leave everything there and walk to your side walk to your side all right okay [Applause] you guys you guys take over rescue right right here are you guys ready to move on hold on hey slow down hey this team everybody's going to move up all right let's see if we can give her commands to see if she complies and then we'll start approaching she doesn't have the gun anymore so let's just slow it down okay okay stop yelling just do it forever don't reach in right now you guys want to walk up she's gonna try and run [Applause] hey guys but still moving around position we have a rescue team that's moving up just leave everything down [Music] the suspect uh okay we're here to help you okay just get on the ground you're coming forward don't look around lay down everybody don't reach in your bed don't reach and then you're great get straight down the ground and turn around and put your hands on your back man listen you're not gonna be arrested we're gonna take you to the hospital right now okay [Music] hey you guys get back get back do you want to advise him hey hey look let's hit her with the 40. that's lethal before she gets away that way be careful hold on hold on [Music] oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] she got shot god damn don't go in the water anymore los angeles fire department paramedics transported lauricha to a local hospital where she was treated for gunshot wounds to her torso and right arm lauriccio was released from the hospital after three days and cleared for booking luricio was transported and booked into a jail facility investigators recovered laurichia's handgun at the scene and booked it as evidence on april 6 2021 the los angeles county district attorney's office filed the following charges on larichia four counts of assault with a firearm on a police officer one count of negligent discharge of a firearm and additional charges are being considered for animal cruelty michelle rene loricia is a 43 year old resident of los angeles in the next several months the lapd will continue to investigate and analyze this incident we'll continue interviewing any new witnesses that may come forward and complete any forensic tests after the investigation is complete our critical incident review division will forward their findings to the chief of police who will make his recommendation to the civilian board of police commissioners the board will evaluate the evidence to determine whether the officer's tactics drawing and exhibiting a weapon and use of deadly force in this instance met the high standards expected of all lapd officers if you would like more information on how the lapd and la district attorney's office investigates all officer-involved shootings and other serious uses of force visit lapdonline.org where you can also find the lapd's use of force policy and procedures thank you for taking the time to view this critical incident community briefing