SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – An attorney representing two Sacramento, California, police officers said Tuesday they acted reasonably and were protecting the community when they fatally shot a knife-wielding, mentally disturbed black man in July.
Legal experts, meanwhile, said a dashboard camera recording of the two officers discussing hitting Joseph Mann with their police car before appearing to try to run him down does not make it more likely that they will face criminal charges in the shooting.
Officers John Tennis and Randy Lozoya were trying to knock down 50-year-old Joseph Mann with the patrol car, not kill him, attorney Judith Odbert said in a lengthy written statement.
They hoped “to take the subject off his feet to prevent the need for any other force to be deployed,” the statement said.
When that didn’t work, the two officers left their vehicle and shot Mann 14 times.