Family of 24-year-old father of three, who was unarmed, speaks out on the brutality of LA sheriff ‘gangs’

Los Angeles officers shot at Ryan Twyman 34 times. He was one of four they killed that day

Los Angeles officers shot at Ryan Twyman 34 times. He was one of four they killed that day

Ryan Twyman was unarmed inside a parked car when two Los Angeles sheriff deputies approached and fired 34 rounds.

Video of the entire incident, which happened in roughly 50 seconds, was as shocking as many police brutality cases that have gone viral in the US. But the killing of the 24-year-old father of three barely made the news.

On that day, his death was far from unique: officers across LA shot five people in five separate incidents in just over 24 hours. Only one person survived. Families and activists said the bloodshed on 6 June provided a terrifying illustration of the culture of police violence and a system that trains officers to kill – while ensuring they won’t face consequences.

“Nobody deserves to be treated like that,” Tommy Twyman, Ryan’s mother, said on a recent afternoon, recounting how her son liked to talk to her on the phone once a day, always a true “mama’s boy”. He loved sheltering dogs and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, she said. “You took something that I’m not gonna ever get back. You robbed me.”

Twyman was one of the more than 500 people who have been killed by on-duty officers in LA county or died in custody since 2013. That’s according to Black Lives Matter LA, which maintains detailed spreadsheets tracking deaths at the hands of local law enforcement.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Twyman’s parents in south Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Alex Welsh/The Guardian

Los Angeles has consistently ranked as one of America’s deadliest regions for police violence, with one analysis finding that police shoot, on average, one person every five days. The county sheriff’s department (LASD) – which killed Twyman and polices millions of people in the LA area outside of city limits – has a troubled record of brutality claims. Leading the department is Alex Villanueva, the elected sheriff sworn in last year and now mired in scandals, including over his reinstatement of a deputy previously fired for domestic violence and his collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

The FBI is also investigating a secret society of tattooed officers and other “gang-like groups” inside LASD – and whether deputies planted evidence and falsified reports.

“LA county sheriff’s deputies are emboldened by who the sheriff is,” said Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter organizer who helps track killings and works with families. “There are gangs within the sheriff’s department.”

On the streets of black and brown neighborhoods, this culture plays out in the form of harassment, racial profiling and abusive patrolling, critics said. LASD is known for having a “warrior mindset” instead of a “service or guardian mindset” in its treatment of citizens, said Alex Vitale, a Brooklyn College sociology professor.

Twyman was a frequent victim of this mentality, his family said.

“We call them the ‘jump out boys’,” said Chiquita Twyman, Ryan’s older sister. In Compton, a south LA city where Ryan lived, residents have grown accustomed to sheriff’s deputies driving around with their doors partially open – so they can jump out at any moment to confront, detain and arrest people on the street, she said.

“I never knew how much a black man could get pulled over until my son became a teenager,” said Tommy. “It never stopped.”

I never knew how much a black man could get pulled over until my son became a teenager Tommy Twyman

Charles Twyman, Ryan’s father, said the police harassment “becomes a way of life”, adding: “We’re used to it. They talk about gangs in the inner city. Who is the bigger gang?”

Police even treated Ryan like a criminal when he was once suffering from a seizure, suggesting he was on drugs instead of helping him, she said.

Sometimes, police would stop Ryan and eventually let him go, his mother said, after it became clear they had no reason to arrest him.

But his final encounter with law enforcement was different. It escalated so quickly he had no time for a conversation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Twyman. Photograph: Courtesy the Twyman family

‘They came to assassinate’

It was 7.30pm on 6 June when two LASD deputies drove up to the apartment complex in Willowbrook in south LA, a mile-and-a-half from Twyman’s home in Compton. It was still light out when two deputies got out of the car, with guns pointed at a parked Kia, according to surveillance footage released by the department, which did not include audio.

As the men approached on either side of the vehicle and opened one of the doors, the car appeared to reverse. Both deputies opened fire and continued shooting from a distance as the car rolled. One deputy returned to his vehicle, opened the trunk, grabbed a larger rifle – and continued shooting at the unmoving car in the distance.

Hundreds dead, no one charged: the uphill battle against Los Angeles police killings Read more

Within roughly 30 seconds, the men had fired a total of about 34 rounds at Twyman in the driver’s seat, and a 22-year-old man in the passenger seat.

“They came to assassinate and kill,” said Chiquita, Ryan’s sister, saying she was particularly disturbed by the first five seconds of the video: “Watch the demeanor when they get out the car … They came there with intention to kill. They came there hunting for my brother.”

The sheriff’s department released the footage with lengthy narration that presented Twyman as a criminal and a threat.

“The vehicle was used as a weapon,” said the commander April Tardy, claiming one of the deputies was “struck” by the car door as Twyman “accelerated” the car in reverse, though in the video, the officer does not appear to be hit or lose his balance. He began firing, the captain continued, to “avoid being knocked down and run over”.

Twyman, who was shot in the upper torso and pronounced dead on the scene, was “under investigation” for illegal possession of weapons, and on probation after a gun possession conviction, Tardy said, adding that the department had been seeking to arrest him. She did not accuse him of any acts of violence. After the deputies finished shooting, they found no weapons in his car.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Twyman was 24 years old. Photograph: Alex Welsh/The Guardian

Letitia Lynex, Twyman’s aunt who lives nearby, rushed to the scene when she got word that something had happened. She said one officer initially told her a “deputy was down” and refused to provide more information, saying: “Google it.” Eventually, a crowd formed, demanding answers, prompting some officers to “draw their guns down on us as if we were criminals”, she said.

Twyman remained lifeless in his car for hours as his relatives showed up trying to figure out what happened. Police have continued to mistreat the family by driving past their house in Compton, stationing themselves outside during a family gathering, and showing up at the funeral, the relatives said.

They were also blindsided by the public release of the video, waking up to the horrifying footage on the news and their social media feeds. Tommy rushed to the bathroom to avoid seeing it as others viewed the final moments of his life.

She still can’t bring herself to watch it.

Why officers keep killing

Justice for Ryan would mean the officers who fired dozens of bullets at him face arrest, prosecution and prison, his family said. The odds of this happening are close to zero.

But the family has some reason to maintain hope.

After hundreds of killings by law enforcement during her tenure, the LA district attorney, Jackie Lacey, the county’s elected prosecutor, has filed charges only once – against an LASD deputy who killed an unarmed man driving away in his car. The charges last December marked the first time an officer was charged for an on-duty killing in nearly 20 years, after roughly 1,500 shootings.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ryan Twyman as a child. Photograph: Courtesy the Twyman family

LASD guidelines dictate that deputies shouldn’t fire at moving cars unless someone in the vehicle is threatening deadly force with something other than the vehicle – a policy that is likely to be considered in the investigation of Twyman’s death. The case resembled the controversial Vallejo, California, police killing of 22-year-old Willie McCoy, who was quickly shot 55 times while in his car.

Charles, Ryan’s father, said it was obvious that deadly force was unnecessary. He noted that days after his son was killed, LA police ended up on a high-speed chase with an armed man who was waving his handgun at the window. The incident ended after a long standoff and negotiations, and the man, who appeared to be white, was taken into custody without being harmed.

Advocates hope a new landmark law in California, which dictates that police should only use deadly force when “necessary”, will prevent this kind of death in the future. Current standards allow police to use deadly force whenever it’s “reasonable”. The footage suggests the killing was unnecessary, said Joanna Schwartz, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor. “Could it have been avoided? It seems like the answer is yes, in about 50 different ways.”

Departments need to enforce their policies restricting officers from firing at fleeing people, so that they face serious consequences when they violate the rules, added the sociology professor Alex Vitale.

Otherwise, he said, officers would keep killing with impunity – and return to the streets.

Could it have been avoided? It seems like the answer is yes, in about 50 different ways. Joanna Schwartz

About three hours after Twyman’s death, LASD deputies killed a 27-year-old man whom they had started following because, the department said, he was acting suspiciously. LASD said a handgun was recovered at the scene. LASD killed another man that day who the department said was armed and had barricaded himself in a house.

Also that day, a Los Angeles police department (LAPD) officer killed a 59-year-old man carrying a “box cutter” – fatally shooting the man while another officer fired a beanbag. A man accused of running from a traffic stop had been shot by LAPD just 20 hours prior.

He was the only survivor.

LASD declined the Guardian’s repeated interview requests.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Twyman leaves behind three young children, ages one, two and three. Photograph: Courtesy the Twyman family

Saying goodbye

Twyman leaves behind three young children, ages one, two and three. Ryan Jr, the three-year-old, has struggled to process his father’s absence, repeatedly asking: “Where’s my dad?”

Sometimes, he stares at men’s faces around him, wondering if they might be his father. Other times, the toddler asks to go home to “see daddy” in case he’s waiting.

The family designed Twyman’s funeral program to look like a Time magazine cover celebrating him, filled with photos of him with his mother and his children.

“In every picture, you can see how much of a family man he was,” said Charles. “He protected everybody.”

Tommy has an alarm set on her phone that goes off every day at 8pm. It was her reminder to call her son to make sure he had taken his seizure medication. But they also both loved their daily catch-ups on the phone, she said, which sometimes would last an hour.

“If anyone knows Ryan Twyman, they know what 8 o’clock means,” she said, with a smile.

Tommy always worried about losing her son as he got older, afraid they wouldn’t be as close after he moved out of the house, she recalled: “When he turned 21, I told him, ‘I don’t know how to let you go,’ and he told me, ‘You don’t have to let me go. I’m gonna always be your baby.’”

Since his death, she said, she can’t bear to turn off her 8pm alarm.