Chants of “No hate in the 818!” and “No justice, no peace, no transphobic police!” rang out while protestors carried a coffin-like white painted box draped in a trans flag to the center of the street outside the Foothill Police Station in Pacoima.
The demonstration last week was held to demand justice for Linda Becerra Moran, a transgender woman who was shot by Los Angeles Police Officer Jacob Sanchez last month. She died on Feb. 27 after three weeks on life support.
About 50 people participated in the protest organized by local LGBTQ+ nonprofits Somos Familia Valle, the TransLatin@ Coalition and Familia TQLM.
“The murder of Linda Becerra Moran by the Los Angeles Foothill Division Police Department was unwarranted and speaks to the disregard of trans lives but also the lack of de-escalation tactics,” Somos Familia Valle wrote in a statement. “This incident demonstrates that police are not here to protect or serve our community.”
According to a video released by the LA Police Department (LAPD), Becerra Moran called 911 on Feb. 7, asking for help and claiming she was being held captive in a motel room on the 10000 block of San Fernando Road, in what may have been a sex trafficking incident.
The responding officers spoke with Becerra Moran for some time before she became agitated and told them to leave. When a distraught Becerra Moran, in the back of the room, held a knife to her neck, the officers responded by withdrawing to the doorway and deploying their weapons. The situation intensified as officers instructed her to drop the knife and calm down. When Becerra Moran took a step toward the center of the room, she was shot by Sanchez in the chest.
While unconscious, officers proceeded to handcuff her before administering aid. She was later transported by LA Fire Department paramedics to a nearby hospital, where she passed away after weeks on life support.
“She called them for help, and they ended up murdering her,” said Damiana Cano, an organizer with Somos Familia Valle. “It really infuriates me … because I know that what she went through was fully preventable. They didn’t have to use violence against her.”
Demonstrators are calling for the prosecution of Sanchez for Becerra Moran’s murder, removing him from his position and preventing him from serving in other departments.
Sanchez is currently on leave while the LAPD conducts an investigation.
The Board of Police Commissioners, appointed by the mayor and approved by the city council, is the governing body that oversees oversight and accountability for the LAPD. After being presented with the investigation, they ultimately decide whether the officer followed protocols and if changes to department training need to be made.
LA Controller Kenneth Mejia released a report on social media this week detailing the city’s highest liability payouts so far in the 2025 fiscal year. LAPD ranked number one with “$52M for excessive/unlawful use of force/civil rights.”
Becerra Moran’s family has filed a lawsuit against the LAPD, alleging that she was suffering a mental health crisis at the time of the incident and that the officer’s actions are unjustified.
“She told them under no uncertain terms, ‘I don’t feel too good. I feel a bit suicidal. I want to harm myself,’” said Denisse Gastélum, the family’s attorney, during a press conference. “She grabbed a knife and at no point, let us be clear, at no point did she ever threaten the officers.”
Mental Health and the Need for De-Escalation Training
“We’re demanding a commitment from police to use nonviolence when handling mental health crises,” said Cano.
Although Becerra Moran expressed the desire to end her life on the phone with the dispatcher, no mental health professional was present at the scene when officers responded to the call.
“The police are not capable of handling the situation. Coming into a room with guns drawn is not how you handle a mental health crisis. That’s how you exacerbate it,” Cano continued. “There’ve been other situations before this, where people have been killed or hurt just for being in a mental crisis and asking for help.”
According to annual use-of-force reports, nearly a third of all LAPD shootings involved a person perceived to have a mental illness or be experiencing a mental health crisis.
LAPD requires de-escalation training and, according to the most recent Use of Force Year-End Review, around 5,500 of the 8,832 officers completed training on mental health intervention and de-escalation techniques by the end of 2023.
The department’s Mental Health Evaluation Unit (MEU), established in 1993 after the beating of Rodney King, pairs police officers with clinicians from the county Department of Mental Health. However, authorities said it has been unable to keep up with the demand from the city.
“The MEU is substantially oversubscribed, and generally they can’t get out to an incident in a timely manner,” said LA City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, which is why she “worked so hard last year to launch the unarmed model of crisis response (UMCR),” while serving as head of LA City Council’s Public Safety committee.
The UMCR is a partnership with local nonprofits that sends two-person teams of mental health specialists, emergency workers and therapists to respond to non-violent emergency calls instead of law enforcement. The pilot program, however, is currently limited to three districts, not including the East Valley.
In the case of Becerra Moran, since she reported being held captive and there was a potential for violence, a dispatcher would be required to send officers to the scene.
LAPD has not responded to questions about whether an MEU was requested.
“We need social workers. We need mental health therapists,” said Ronnie Véliz, a therapist in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. “We need people who are really going to de-escalate the situation rather than make it worse.”
Véliz added that the community needs to reach out to elected officials and ask: “What are you doing to hold LAPD accountable for the murder of Linda Moran?”
Rodriguez, whose district includes Pacoima, said that procedurally, she needs to “allow the investigation to take place,” but that the video released by LAPD reveals a “clear need for greater sensitivity in the response” when responding to matters involving the LGBTQ+ community.
“I will continue to advocate that the department invest in that sensitivity training and for the collaboration of working with leaders in that community to address the sensitive nature and needs of those populations,” said Rodriguez.
Surviving an Abusive System Through Community Solidarity
“I truly feel like the person who murdered her did not value her life,” said Cano, adding that anti-trans rhetoric has made her feel unsafe, as though there is a target on her back every time she steps outside.
“As a community, we’re really resilient and persistent,” she continued. “I know we’re gonna find creative ways of overcoming these tough times.”
School teacher and self-described trans Latinx woman, Alicia Sainz Arballo, believes the officer’s actions stem from a system that marginalizes and stigmatizes the trans community.
“Behind that gun the officer holds are years of hearing the dehumanizing rhetoric towards our trans community, over and over, daily. Behind that gun the officer holds is the years of negative stigma and hate spoken about us as a community, over and over, daily. Behind that gun the officer holds is a system stating that we as a trans community are not worth saving or living full and vibrant and powerful in our own skin. The officer shoots the weight of all that hatred and negativity behind a single bullet,” said Sainz Arballo.
“We as a trans community have had to endure years of abuse, neglect and hate in a country that prides itself on its motto of freedom for all,” she continued. “Laws are being written and enacted all over our country, purposely trying to exterminate our community, strip us of our rights as individuals, take away our health care and leave us alone, isolated to anger and violence from a system that does not value our well-being, our health or our safety.”
President Donald Trump issued multiple executive orders targeting the trans community in his first few weeks in office. The administration has been attempting to make life more difficult for the trans community by blocking the State Department from issuing new passports for trans a nonbinary citizens, restricting gender-affirming care, banning trans girls from schools sports, barring trans people from military service, censoring education and removing LGBTQ+ history from government websites, cutting funding to LGBTQ+ programs and forcing trans people to serve prison sentences under their assigned gender at birth.
San Fernando Valley resident Elektra Armenta suggested that when faced with a broken system, “community is the only way forward.”
“It’s up to us. It’s always been up to us,” said Armenta. “We can stand up for each other, create community and safe spaces, provide tangible resources directly in the valley for trans people, and most of all, be unapologetically trans. … Let’s use our anger to power our existence.”