Overview
- Attorneys for the family filed a legal claim against the city on June 23 alleging negligence and a failure to de-escalate after Santa Ana officers fatally shot a 15-year-old during a June 14 encounter.
- Police say officers responded to a report that the teen had stabbed a man and was damaging property, forced open the apartment door, encountered the youth with a knife, and fired during the contact.
- The family says the teen, identified as Jaden D. Michaca, was in a mental-health crisis, that the mother had asked for a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team, and that officers opened fire despite pleas to use nonlethal options.
- The claim alleges officers shot the teen seven to eight times and that the mother was struck and injured; a claim is typically a required step before a civil lawsuit seeking damages.
- The Santa Ana Police Homicide Unit, SAPD Internal Affairs and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office are investigating and will review body-worn camera footage, witness statements and forensics, a process that could lead to departmental discipline or criminal charges and will shape wider debate over police responses to mental-health crises.