A former Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed 24-year-old man in his car in 2019 was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Friday.
Andrew Lyons, one of two deputies who fired a barrage of bullets at Ryan Twyman in a parking lot in south Los Angeles, pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm and assault under color of authority, said the district attorney, George Gascón.
He had originally been charged with voluntary manslaughter. He will be on probation for two years and his officer certification has been revoked under the deal, meaning he can no longer serve in law enforcement in California, Gascón said. Two years was the maximum probation term allowed under the law, and if he commits a violation of probation, he could face more than a decade in prison, the DA said.
Lyons surrendered on Friday and was taken to jail. The criminal conviction and jail time for the 39-year-old is an exceptionally rare outcome for an on-duty killing by a law enforcement official.
On 6 June 2019, two Los Angeles sheriff’s department (LASD) deputies drove up to an apartment complex in Willowbrook in south LA, not far from Twyman’s home in Compton. Surveillance video showed the deputies exited their car with guns pointed at a parked vehicle. As the two officers approached, the car reversed and both deputies opened fire at it, continuing to shoot from a distance as the vehicle appeared to roll away.
The car came to a stop, still in the lot, but footage showed Lyons return to his car, open his trunk, pick up an assault rifle and continue to shoot at the motionless vehicle. The footage did not have sound and the entire interaction was less than a minute. The sheriff’s department said the two deputies fired a total of 34 rounds. Twyman was in the driver’s seat.
Lyons was fired from the LASD after the shooting. The second deputy did not face charges.
Twyman was one of four people killed by officers in Los Angeles county that day, and the case sparked protests in the city. Twyman’s family has been organizing against police brutality in the years since, pushing for the ouster of the former district attorney Jackie Lacey over her failure to prosecute officers, demonstrating against the scandal-plagued former sheriff Alex Villanueva and protesting against the powerful police unions. His relatives are part of a group of families of people killed by police who reported that the LASD harassed them after they spoke out.
Twyman was a father of three. His sons were aged one, two and three when he was killed.
Tommy Twyman, Ryan’s mother, stood with her family at a press conference alongside Gascón after the sentencing, saying: “Today is bittersweet. We all miss him very, very much. We miss his smile, his laugh. We miss him chasing dogs around the backyard. His three boys really, really miss him. I promised him we’d fight to the end and we did.”
An official with the DA’s office told reporters the manslaughter charge required proof that the defendant caused the death, and because two officers fired shots, that could have created a challenge.
Lyons was only the second officer to face criminal charges for an on-duty fatal shooting in Los Angeles county in over 20 years. The other prosecuted officer was acquitted at trial. Officers in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the US, have killed more than 1,000 people since 2000, according to a Los Angeles Times database.
Gascón, who was elected on a platform of holding police accountable, has also filed criminal charges against officers for on-duty assaults and perjury during his tenure.
Lyons did not speak at the hearing, the LA Times reported. “From the outset, we have stated this is a case based in politics, not facts,” his lawyers said in a statement, criticizing the DA. “Mr Lyons has reluctantly agreed to accept a plea in this matter and to end his 15-year law enforcement career out of his belief that it is in the best interest of his family … Being a first responder is an inherently dangerous job. In Los Angeles county that danger is compounded by District Attorney George Gascon’s injection of politics into his analysis of public safety decision-making.”
Before details of the sentence were announced, Chiquita Twyman, Ryan’s sister, said the process of the criminal proceedings had been grueling for the family, but she was glad there was some resolution: “It has been a such a long time – four and a half years – so at least my family can now mourn correctly and have some closure from the trauma … But my nephews, three young Black men, will never have a father. It’s horrible.”
Of the plea agreement, she added, “There is some justice, but there is no accountability. He has never apologized to my family.”
