‘Everything went wrong’: LA family called county clinicians, not police, during a mental health crisis. It still ended tragically

When a Los Angeles police officer fatally shot a 40-year-old man in his parents’ Koreatown home last month, it was clear to many, including officers at the scene, that he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Earlier that day, Yong Yang’s mother had called the L.A. County Department of Mental Health to get help for her son, who had gone to the parents’ home because he was feeling paranoid and unsafe, according to family members. Yang’s family said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than a decade ago.

The situation intensified after a worker with the Department of Mental Health — who had been dispatched to the scene — called 911, claiming Yang had attacked him.

When police arrived, they tried to get Yang to leave the apartment, but he refused, according to police. A short time later, one of the officers shot Yang, who was in his parents’ living room holding a kitchen knife.

Yang died at the scene.

So far, there have been 14 shootings by LAPD this year, three of which involved people the department said appeared to be dealing with mental illness or were having a mental health crisis at the time of the incident.

An important distinction in the Yang case is that his family called county authorities, not city police, on the day of the incident, seeking a type of alternative crisis response that does not necessarily involve police officers.

But police were called anyway.

Yong Yang pictured with his parents Myung Sook and Min Yang.

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Courtesy of the Yang family.

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“Everything went wrong. Mental health people, police, they were not in the mood to help,” Yang’s father Min Yang said in an interview with LAist. “And I was too naive and stupid that I trusted those people and put my son’s life in such a grave danger.”

The Department of Mental Health said it could not comment on the specifics of the May 2 incident because it is still under investigation. But county authorities did provide an emailed statement in which they explained that crisis teams are trained to de-escalate situations without police, but sometimes they need assistance.

“In instances where de-escalation through clinical means is not possible, and the person in crisis remains an imminent threat to themselves or others, despite DMH’s efforts, law enforcement will be contacted to maintain safety and attempt to keep the peace,” the department said.

Between January and May of this year, the county dispatched teams to nearly 8,870 calls throughout the region, about 550 of which — about 6% — resulted in a mental health worker calling law enforcement.

A recent LAist investigation found that between 2017 and 2023, 31% of shootings by L.A. city police involved a person perceived by officers to be living with mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis, according to annual use-of-force reports.

The shooting in Koreatown

Yang’s family members said they knew he was having a bipolar episode when they called for help on May 2. The night before the incident, they said, Yang was not sleeping, he spoke erratically in conversations and was possibly hearing voices.

At some point that night, the parents left and went to Min Yang’s office and later slept in their car to give their son some space to calm down, the father said.

The next day, Yong Yang’s mother, Myung Sook Yang, called the Department of Mental Health. She said she and Yang’s father were worried because Yang's condition did not seem to have improved and he seemed to not recognize her when she came to the apartment door.

Myung Sook Yang regrets calling the Department of Mental Health and believes her son was treated like a suspect rather than a patient who needed care. "There are so many mentally ill people who need help," she said. "So now, where they can get help?"

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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A baby photo of twin brothers Yin and Yong Yang shortly after they arrived to the United States from South Korea.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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A clinician and a medical case worker with a Psychiatric Mobile Response Team went to the family’s home, according to the county.

According to audio released by LAPD, the clinician called 911, claiming that Yang was “very violent” and tried to attack him and Yang’s father.

Yang’s father told LAist he disputes that claim.

It’s not clear from the audio what behaviors the clinician reported to police, and no video was released that shows what happened at the Yangs’ home before police arrived.

Body-worn camera footage shows two police officers arriving on scene and speaking with Yang’s father. He tells the officers that his son needs to go to a hospital.

Myung Sook Yang and Min Yang walk into their apartment where their son Yong was killed by an LAPD officer during a mental health crisis.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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One officer asks Yong Yang to open the door to the apartment. He can be heard in the video saying, “I do not invite you.” He does not open the door.

About 20 minutes later, a supervising officer arrives and explains to Yang’s father that Yang “might get hurt” if police have to go into the apartment and forcibly detain him.

The supervisor talks to Yang through the front door. A voice responds: ”I’ve already been killed multiple times.”

Moments later, the officer says, “All right, we’re gonna have a use of force.”

Later, an officer uses a key to unlock the door. The officer pushes it open, but someone appears to be pushing the door from the other side.

Two officers eventually push the door open. They find Yang in the living room, holding a knife.

“You’re gonna get shot!” one of the officers yells, according to the video. Officers tell Yang to drop the knife.

He initially steps away from the officers but then takes a few steps toward them.

Yong Yang with his father, Min.

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Courtesy of the Yang family.

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Within 10 seconds of opening the door, an officer opens fire, hitting Yang. Police said they found narcotics at the scene, but did not provide details.

The officer was identified as Andres Lopez. It wasn’t his first shooting while on-duty. According to the county District Attorney’s Office, Lopez shot and wounded 35-year-old Nakiea Brown in 2021 outside LAPD’s Olympic station. Brown was holding a BB pellet gun at the time of the incident.

The shooting was not fatal. According to the D.A.’s Office, Brown had one prior contact with the LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit in May 2020.

After reviewing the incident, the District Attorney's Office determined the shooting was justified.

‘It could have been avoided’

In the interview with LAist, Yang’s family questioned why the officers did not use a bean-bag rifle, Taser or other tool to help them detain Yang without fatally shooting him.

Based on the video footage, it does not appear that police used any less-lethal weapons to try to take Yang into custody. At least one officer appears to be holding a foam projectile gun.

The LAPD has said its Mental Evaluation Unit was notified before the shooting, but it’s unclear whether a SMART unit, one of the department’s specially trained mental health crisis teams, arrived on scene. When asked for that information, the department said LAist would have to file a public records request to obtain it.

LAist has submitted that request.

Retired police Lt. Jeffrey Wenninger reviewed the LAPD’s video of the Yang shooting at the LAist’s request. He spent 30 years with the LAPD and said he has investigated hundreds of use-of-force incidents.

Wenninger commended the officers for requesting backup soon after they arrived at the scene, but he said dispatchers and officers could have asked better questions about Yang’s mental health background and what might have worked to calm him down.

Wenninger also questioned why officers decided to forcibly enter the apartment, especially because Yang was alone inside the home.

“I would say in this case, a lack of planning certainly influenced the outcome here,” he said. “It was pretty predictable to a trained eye what was going to happen.

“I 100% believe it could have been avoided.”

Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and use-of-force expert who advises law enforcement agencies, also reviewed the video. He told LAist he believed lethal force was justified in this case because Yang was armed with a knife. He said the allegation that the clinician was attacked also changed the scenario.

“In this situation there was an actual threat in the use of physical force, assault by the individual against innocent civilians, and at that point, yes, we need to address the situation,” Obayashi said.

The Yang family questions the LAPD's tactics that led up to the killing of Yong Yang while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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‘I would just suffer’

 
In his parent’s dining room, steps away from the living room where Yang was shot, a photo of Yong Yang and his twin brother, Yin Yang, hangs on the wall. The photo shows the two young boys sitting together in the sunlight.

“In Korean culture, they’re really big on the older brother, younger brother thing,” Yin Yang said. “They always said I’m older, because I’m two minutes [older], but in recent years he was the more respectable one.”

Yong Yang studied music production at the Musician's Institute – College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood.

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Courtesy of the Yang family.

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One of Yong Yang’s goals in life, according to his brother, was to make it as a musician and producer. He was a good singer, who loved electronic dance music. As a kid growing up in the ‘90s, he loved R&B singers, like Boyz II Men.

He attended the Musician's Institute – College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood, where he studied music production, his brother said.

Yang first started showing symptoms of mental illness about 15 years ago. His father said Yang was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around 2012.

Over the years Yang managed his bipolar diagnosis with meditation, exercise and his Christian faith, according to his family.

Yin Yang said he thinks mental health professionals and the police could have done much more to try and calm his brother down before he was shot, and he is critical of the mental health care system, which he said doesn’t offer the support people need.

Twin brothers Yong and Yin Yang as teenagers.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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"As a twin brother, it's hard. Becasue I feel like he's my other half. And it's gone, it's just taken from me," said Yin Yang.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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The brother said he thinks law enforcement too often escapes any consequences for fatally shooting someone. “And it’s usually these mentally ill people because they don’t have the ability to stand up for themselves and there’s not a lot of, like, sympathy for them in the public,” he said.

Earlier this month, Yin Yang organized a rally to call attention to the case. He also started an Instagram account to get the word out about his brother. He said many members of the Korean community in L.A. have been supportive of the family and their calls for answers from the city and county.

“As his twin brother, it’s hard. Because I feel like he’s my other half. And it’s gone, it’s just taken from me,” he said.

Yang’s father said he was sorry that his request for help led to his son’s sudden death. “He didn’t know that’s going to happen. I didn’t know. He must have thought that he was well-protected in his parents’ home,” the father said.

Yang’s mother said she thought she was doing the right thing when she called for a mental health crisis team instead of calling 911. If she had another chance, she said, he would not have called anybody for help.

“I would just suffer,” she said. “There are so many mentally ill people who need help. So now, where they can get help?”