LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles Police Commission decided Tuesday that LAPD officers violated deadly force rules in two controversial fatal shootings last year, including one in which a woman armed with a knife was shot and another in which officers killed a man who had thrown a beer bottle at their patrol vehicle.
The civilian panel that oversees the LAPD announced that it had faulted both officers who fatally shot James Joseph Byrd in October after a bottle shattered the back window of their patrol car in Van Nuys. The department had said at the time that the officers mistakenly thought they had come under fire.
In the Sept. 27, 2015, shooting of Norma Guzman, the commission found fault with both the tactics and the use of deadly force by one of the two officers who shot her as she was walking along a street near downtown while carrying an 8-inch knife.
Guzman's killing prompted criticism of the LAPD, with local activists and her family questioning why officers didn't use less-lethal devices, such as Tasers, before firing their guns at the 37-year-old.
Attorneys representing Guzman's family released video of the shooting, captured by a nearby security camera, earlier this year. The officers were also wearing body cameras, but that footage has not been made public.
The LAPD said the officers confronted Guzman after someone reported a woman armed with a knife in the 2100 block of South San Pedro Street, not far from downtown L.A. Guzman suffered from an undiagnosed metal illness and often left her home to walk in the area, her family and their attorneys have said.
The video shows two officers getting out of their black-and-white SUV, their guns drawn as they watch Guzman walk toward them on the sidewalk.
One officer stands behind a red car, his gun aimed at Guzman. When she reaches the side of the sedan opposite him, both officers open fire. Guzman collapses on the sidewalk.
The shooting occurred about 10 seconds after the first officer exited the SUV, according to the time-stamped video.
The LAPD has said Guzman kept moving toward police despite repeated orders to drop her knife. It is difficult to see Guzman's hands in the recording, which has no sound.
The LAPD has previously identified the officers who shot Guzman as Samuel Briggs and Antonio McNeely.
Police fatally shot Byrd less than a week later.
Two LAPD officers were stopped at a red light in Van Nuys when the back window of their patrol car shattered. Fearing they were under fire, LAPD officials have said, the officers jumped out of the cruiser and fired their guns at a nearby man they believed was responsible.
That man was Byrd. When investigators searched his body and the surrounding area, they didn't find a gun or other weapon, police said. Instead, they determined that he had shattered the patrol car's window by throwing a 40-ounce beer bottle.
The LAPD previously identified the officers who shot Byrd as Zackary Goldstein and Andrew Hacoupian.
The Oct. 3 shooting came during heightened tension within the LAPD after a video circulated on social media showing what police feared was a threat against officers: a person filming an LAPD patrol car, then flashing the camera down to show a revolver.
An attorney representing the officers who shot Byrd told the Los Angeles Times last year the video clip was discussed in at least two roll call meetings that the officers attended, including one the same day as the shooting. After the shooting, attorney Gary Fullerton said, the officers told investigators they thought they were being attacked because of the video.
The LAPD later determined that the video wasn't a threat against officers but a promotional video filmed by an early 1990s rap group trying to make a comeback.
Guzman and Byrd were among the 36 people shot by on-duty LAPD officers last year. Twenty-one of them were killed.
This year, on-duty LAPD officers have shot 17 people, killing 14, according to a Times analysis.
