American citizen, victim of mistaken police shooting

According to CBS News, Los Angeles police officers shot and killed 35-year-old Mario Sanchez on Friday, March 14, after mistaking the victim's cellphone for a gun.

The shooting occurred during a traffic incident, and Sanchez was taken to the hospital with injuries; Sanchez was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The California Department of Justice announced that it has launched an investigation into the incident, as Sanchez was not armed.

The names of the officers present at the scene of the shooting have not yet been released.

The medical examiner's report stated that Sanchez's cause of death was a gunshot to the head.

Reports indicate that police officers fired more than 10 shots at Sanchez; video released of the incident shows police officers firing 12 shots.

The fatal shooting is the eighth shooting by Los Angeles police officers in 2025.

Protesters against police brutality in Los Angeles gathered in front of the police department building on Friday, chanting “Justice for Sanchez.”

The study found that police officers in the United States committed 9,129 fatal shootings between 2015 and mid-2024, with the data collected starting in 2015 due to the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.

However, studies have shown that fewer than half of fatal police shootings are reported, and the gap is growing.

As of 2021, only about a third of fatal shootings appeared in the FBI’s database, which officials say is because local police departments are not required to report them to the federal government.

The shooting of American citizens by US police has important features that highlight human rights violations by this agency.