Family members of a 38-year-old man in the throes of a mental health crisis, who called 911 himself and was later shot dead by police on the steps of a Long Beach church in a gunbattle that left one officer injured, are demanding justice.
The deadly Nov. 19 shootout unfolded in the area of Atlantic Avenue and 52nd street where officers and SWAT teams with the Long Beach Police Department responded to reports of a “man with a gun” just after 3 p.m.
The suspect, Brandon Boyd, a father of six, was declared dead at the scene.
“After approximately two and a half hours of de-escalation attempts, the suspect and officers both discharged their firearms,” LBPD said after the incident. “An officer sustained a gunshot wound to the arm. The suspect sustained gunshot wounds.”
“Brandon had his hands up and wasn’t posing any threat as multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed,” his sister, Tiffany Boyd, said at a Tuesday news conference. “He was peaceful and in need of help.”
Tiffany and her extended family contend that Brandon was unjustly killed, saying he called 911 from the steps of his childhood house of worship, Iglesia del Cristo Miel Church, while having a mental health crisis.
The way that authorities responded to his calls for help, family said, was excessive and brutal.
“He did what we’re supposed to do, which is call for help,” family friend Lamikia Castillo told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff. “Instead of getting help, he is now dead, and his family is left to pick up the pieces and figure this out.”
Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish said LBPD specialized teams attempted to deescalate the situation, tried nonlethal tactics to engage Brandon and get him to give up his gun, but that after two hours, the 38-year-old refused.
Police said that eventually, Brandon pointed his gun in their direction, prompting a shootout that left him dead and an officer with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
“Officers attempted to speak with the subject who was uncooperative,” Chief Hebeish said that evening. “They called for additional resources including a hostage negotiator and our mental evaluation team.”
Brandon’s family counters that claim and said that mental health experts never engaged their loved one.
His oldest sister, Tyerra Boyd, said that when she and two other family members tried to help reassure Brandon themselves, all three of them were arrested for interfering.
“We were dragged away in handcuffs, and we were thrown into a police car like we were the criminals who had just shot and killed my brother in front of us,” she said.
The Boyd family is now demanding police release the 911 call made by Brandon and drop the charges against them.
As for Long Beach police, officials said the department will release footage of the shootout captured on officers’ body-worn cameras to the public as soon as they can.