Investigators on Tuesday released graphic footage of a police shooting in Van Nuys last month that left both a knife-wielding man and the woman he was holding hostage dead.

Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore said Elizabeth Tollison, a 49-year-old homeless woman with disabilities that left her with limited mobility, was shot twice as three police officers fired on the man holding a knife to her neck.

It’s not clear how many times the man, Guillermo Perez, 32, was shot during the encounter. Moore said Tollison also received stab wounds to her neck as Perez held the knife against her.

The police video released Tuesday was taken from two of the officers’ body-worn cameras. They captured footage of Perez holding a folding chair and a knife while fending off multiple bean-bag rounds from police.

Warning — this photo gallery of images from the LAPD body cam video includes intense images:

This screen grab from a YouTube video released by the Los Angeles police dept. shows a suspect and his hostage being shot as officers opened fire striking the suspect and the hostage in Van Nuys on June 16, 2018.

This screen grab from a YouTube video released by the Los Angeles police dept. shows a suspect holding a knife to the throat of a hostage seconds before the officers opened fire striking the suspect and the hostage in Van Nuys on June 16, 2018.

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This screen grab from a YouTube video released by the Los Angeles police dept. shows a suspect holding a knife to the throat of a hostage seconds before the officers opened fire striking the suspect and the hostage in Van Nuys on June 16, 2018.

LAPD body cam footage shows officers moving in on June 16, 2018, at a Van Nuys church where an officer-involved shooting left a suspect and victim dead. The male suspect was stabbing a woman he was holding an knifepoint, as seen on the video, when officers moved in and eventually opened fire. (Image from LAPD video)



Within a few seconds, Perez grabs Tollison and holds the long, serrated knife to her neck. The officers then began firing. Both Perez and Tollison were struck, then collapsed to the ground.

Moore on Tuesday said the officers fired 18 times. He said this was the second police shooting of an unarmed bystander or hostage in just six weeks — on July 21, police gunfire also struck and killed a Trader Joe’s manager in Silver Lake, who was standing outside the store when a brief gun battle erupted between a shooting suspect and the officers pursuing him.

Before this summer, the last time LAPD officers killed a hostage or an unarmed bystander was 13 years ago, Moore said.

The chief said investigators would examine whether any of the rounds fired by the three officers were inappropriate.

Moore said officers are trained in taking “precise headshots” in hostage situations.

“We have had a number of incidents such as this, where that training was used and the suspect’s actions were stopped due to the placement of a precise headshot,” Moore said.

He said investigators will determine whether the officers’ actions matched up to the department’s training.

Like he did earlier this month, Moore called the shooting of an innocent bystander an officer’s “worst nightmare.”

“These officers were forced to make a split-second decision,” Moore said at LAPD’s downtown headquarters. “This was a tense situation that unfolded very quickly.”

Warning — this LAPD video includes graphic images:

Day of the shooting

Security camera footage from the homeless outreach center inside a church where the shooting took place showed the violent attack that led to police being called.

Ken Craft, the CEO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, said he reviewed the footage that showed Perez attacking a woman. Police described that woman as Perez’s ex-girlfriend.

The video showed Perez grabbing the woman’s hair, then holding the blunt edge of the knife against her neck. He said the woman grabbed the knife to defend herself, cutting her fingers.

The weapon appeared to be a long bread knife, and Craft said workers believed Perez was carrying it in a backpack before the attack. In the police video, LAPD Commander Alan Hamilton said they found the bloody knife at the scene and were testing it for forensic evidence.

Craft said before the attack, Perez was acting normally, sitting outside on a chair wrapped in a blanket after eating the daily hot meal provided by the center. He said the footage appeared to show Perez becoming incensed after seeing the woman.

Perez was known to staff at the Van Nuys location, and had been receiving services there.

Hope of the Valley operates several outreach centers across the San Fernando Valley, feeding homeless people and getting them medical and mental health treatment while also trying to place them in temporary housing.

In all of Perez’s previous interactions with workers, Craft said the man was “docile.”

“We had not had any issues with him,” Craft said.

Hamilton said police believed Perez was a gang member. Perez was previously convicted of armed robbery, and was recently released from jail after being charged with domestic violence.

When police arrived, they found Perez standing against the wall of the church with the chair and knife in hand. Others who were outside were surrounding him, but standing back.

Perez approached the officers as they yelled at him several times to drop the knife. An officer fired two bean bag rounds at the man. One struck him in the chest, but was ineffective. The other was deflected off the chair.

As the officers continued to approach, Perez began walking away, but then turned to Tollison, who was leaning on a walker near the church wall.

Craft said Tollison had been receiving services at the center for about seven to eight months. He said the woman had trouble moving, and looked trapped as Perez and the officers came closer to her.

“She used a walker, that unfortunately I think prevented her from getting away,” Craft said. “Everything happened so fast. She was kind of stuck, leaning against the building. She couldn’t go forward or backwards when he grabbed her.”

Craft said caseworkers described Tollison as a sweet, kindhearted woman. He didn’t know how long she had been homeless.

Workers were in the middle of trying to get her into temporary housing when she was killed, Craft said. He said he met with two of Tollison’s three adult children the day after the shooting; he said all three visited their mother in the hospital before she died.

By Tuesday evening, attorneys for the three children said they were filing claims of wrongful death and negligence against the city of Los Angeles and LAPD.

Craft said the June shooting was the first time in his 30 years in homeless outreach that he’d seen this level of violence at a shelter.

“I think this was undoubtedly very traumatic for our staff and our clients,” he said. “When you’re receiving homeless people in the same place every day, you become almost like family. People get to know one another.”

He said the incident forced the location to increase security — there’s now only one entrance and exit to the building, and all of the center’s homeless clients must have their bags checked.

Still, Craft said he believed the officers had no other option but to shoot Perez. He said he didn’t think the man was going to surrender.

“We’re heartbroken for both (Perez and Tollison),” he said. “It’s just profoundly sad.”

Less-lethal options not working

In his remarks about the incident Tuesday, Chief Moore said the LAPD was still looking at ways to bring down the number of deadly incidents involving its officers.

He said he remained concerned about an increase in officer-involved shootings in 2017, which jumped form 40 in 2016 to 44 last year. Moore also said the average number of officers involved in each of those shootings, as well as the average number of shots fired, increased in that time as well.

He said his officers were also facing more suspects carrying weapons other than firearms.

Both Moore and Commander Hamilton, who leads the unit that investigates all shootings by the department’s police, said the Van Nuys incident also showed what they saw as the increasing ineffectiveness of bean-bag shotguns in taking down suspects.

In a similar officer-involved shooting in Pacoima in May, Hamilton said officers fired dozens of bean bag rounds at another knife-wielding suspect. None were effective, and the officers were eventually forced to shoot the man after he picked up a pick-axe.

Also fired in the Pacoima incident was another less-lethal option — a launcher that shoots a much larger, 40 millimeter foam round at a higher speed. Moore said police were continuing to test that launcher and hoped to roll out more to incident commanders in the coming months.