A California Department of Justice investigation has concluded that there was no criminal wrongdoing by the eight Hemet police officers who fatally shot a 26-year-old man who pointed what turned out to be a replica firearm at them as he sat intoxicated on a sidewalk on July 4, 2024.

Family members and friends of Jimmy Lopez protested the shooting , telling the City Council that Lopez posed no threat to the officers and that the Police Department needed to change how it handled such confrontations. They believed Lopez was improving as a person and working consistently.

“I’m never gonna see him be a good father to his kids,” Lopez’s mother, Mandy Diaz, said at a news conference about a month after her son’s death. “They took his life at a young age. He didn’t deserve this.”

Lopez had dau

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