Santa Ana City Council orders independent investigation into videoed police beating

Five days after a cellphone video showed Santa Ana police officers repeatedly striking Florentino Lopez during an arrest, all seven City Council members voted Tuesday to have the encounter examined outside the police department.

The decision came 129 minutes after the council's scheduled 5:30 PM open-session start. Councilmembers went into closed session earlier that evening, after the emergency item involving Lopez's arrest was added to the agenda.

When they returned, Mayor Valerie Amezcua announced that the council had unanimously directed City Attorney Sonia Carvalho and City Manager Alvaro Nuñez to hire an independent investigator who will report directly to the council under Section 1100 of the Santa Ana City Charter.

That investigation is one of two separate reviews of the Oct. 1 encounter, city officials later clarified.

The other is an administrative investigation into the conduct of the officers involved. That review will determine whether officers violated SAPD policy and can inform whether personnel discipline is warranted. Excessive-force reviews are typically handled by SAPD’s Internal Affairs Division, but the police chief and city manager can decide to send the investigation outside the department.

In this case, Police Chief Robert Rodriguez recommended, and the city manager decided, that a third party conduct the administrative investigation.

The council’s Section 1100 investigation is separate. An outside investigator will report directly to councilmembers and can examine the incident, potential policy violations and whether department policies, processes or procedures should be improved.

In other words, the administrative investigation focuses on the officers’ conduct and possible personnel consequences, while the Section 1100 investigation gives the City Council its own review of the incident and broader department practices.

The council took another unanimous action Tuesday, directing the city to release the names of the officers involved and related body-worn camera, audio and video recordings if it is legally determined that Lopez suffered great bodily injury as a result of the use of force. The vote did not order the records released immediately.

Amezcua emphasized how quickly the council had taken up the incident.

“In the history of Santa Ana, we have never acted so swiftly that within five days we are sitting here having a closed session on this item and bringing it to the public,” Amezcua said.

“We understand the concern based on what is plainly visible on the video,” she added. “We look forward to reviewing all the evidence and conclusions of the two investigations.”

On Sunday, Rodriguez made the following statement to social media:

"I am aware of a video circulating on social media involving an arrest on October 1, 2026, near Jackson Street and 5th Street, during which a use of force occurred. I have personally reviewed the video and want to assure our community that we take every use of force seriously. Our Department is conducting a thorough review of the incident, including body worn camera footage, reports, and the circumstances surrounding the arrest. It is important that we allow that process to take place and let the facts guide our conclusions. As Chief, maintaining the trust of our community remains a responsibility I take seriously, and we will continue to approach this matter with fairness, transparency, and respect for the process."

What the video shows — and what it doesn’t

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Santanero (@thesantanero)

The Santanero obtained a video capturing several minutes of the encounter between Florentino Lopez and Santa Ana police officers.

At the beginning of the recording, Lopez is standing against the front of a police vehicle with two officers behind him, one on each side. Lopez can be heard saying, “Are you gonna look at me when you do it?” It is unclear from the recording what he was responding to.

Moments later, the officer to Lopez’s left pulls him away from the vehicle and takes him to the pavement. The officer then repeatedly punches Lopez and delivers knee strikes toward his head and upper body as Lopez appears to raise his arms to shield himself.

As he is being struck, a person can be heard shouting, “Lawsuit.” The second officer also becomes involved, appearing to strike Lopez before calling for backup.

The second officer then grabs Lopez’s legs, bends them at the knees and crosses them behind him while Lopez remains on the pavement. The first officer continues restraining Lopez around his upper body.

Blood becomes visible around Lopez’s upper face as the encounter continues.

As Lopez’s family members begin approaching the officers, several additional officers arrive within about a minute. Some move family members away from the scene while others assist in restraining Lopez.

At one point, the officer who initially took Lopez to the ground appears to have a knee pressed against the area of Lopez’s neck and upper back. Lopez can be heard groaning as the restraint continues.

The recording ends as Lopez’s mother attempts to approach her son.

What the video does not show is how the encounter began or what happened before Lopez was standing against the police vehicle.

Lopez’s attorney, John Kremer, has said Lopez and a relative were smoking marijuana outside a residence when Santa Ana police officers drove by, recognized Lopez and motioned for him to approach. Kremer said Lopez complied and that he was on felony probation with search-and-seizure conditions.

Lopez has since been released from custody. Kremer told The Santanero on Wednesday that Lopez continues to have bruising from the encounter.

“Mr. Lopez is relieved to be out of custody,” Kremer said. “He still sports the residual bruising to his face and body from the incident but is otherwise faring pretty well physically.”

Kremer said Lopez “remains shocked and dismayed at the brutality inflicted upon him by the two SAPD officers.”

The attorney also welcomed the City Council’s decision to order an outside investigation.

“I wholeheartedly approve the City’s wise decision to approve an independent investigation of the use of excessive force by officers of the Santa Ana Police Department on the evening of October 1, 2026,” Kremer said.

He added that he supports “any recommended departmental changes and police protocols that will enhance public safety and regain the public’s trust in law enforcement in the future.”

For his family, the attention surrounding the arrest has become about more than the outcome of his criminal case.

“My hope is that this case will bring greater awareness to the many other cases that have been overlooked or swept under the rug,” his sister, Alex Lopez, told The Santanero. “I hope it not only brings justice for my brother, but also for everyone else who was never given the justice they deserved or who continues to fight for it.”

“No one should have to endure that struggle because of a lack of accountability within the police department or the failure to hold officers responsible for their actions,” she said.

Asked about the officers' actions shown in the video, including the repeated strikes, Santa Ana Police Officers Association President John Kachirisky said the association supports waiting for the investigative process.

“We support a thorough, fair and unbiased investigation that is based on the facts and evidence of the case,” Kachirisky told The Santanero.

One vote, different reactions

The council was unanimous in ordering an independent investigation, but members had different reactions to what they had seen and different ideas about what should happen next.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho cautioned that councilmembers were expressing their personal views, which did not necessarily reflect the position of the city as a whole. She also noted the potential liability surrounding the case and the city's responsibility to protect “the citizens' dollars.”

Councilmember Benjamin Vazquez said he was “appalled” by what he saw and placed responsibility for the department not only on the police chief and city manager, but on himself and the rest of the council.

“At the end of the day, this happened on our watch,” Vazquez said.

He said the investigations should address potential officer accountability and lead to policy changes aimed at preventing similar incidents.

“We don't want continued violence from our officers to happen,” Vazquez said, “and we want to build a community that feels safe when we see our officers.”

Councilmember Jessie Lopez said what she saw “infuriated” her.

“Our officers are entrusted with significant authority and responsibility,” she said, “and the burden to deescalate absolutely lays on our officers.”

She recalled hearing Lopez's grandmother and other family members during the encounter, describing their feeling of powerlessness as they watched someone they loved, in her words, “be jumped.”

“It's really difficult to ask members of our community to trust their local government, to trust their representatives when you feel that these things often happen,” Jessie Lopez said.

She also offered a glimpse into the closed-session discussion that preceded the unanimous vote, saying councilmembers had a lengthy conversation in which “some of us have even yelled at each other,” but ultimately reached agreement.

Before Tuesday's meeting, Jessie Lopez was the only councilmember to respond to The Santanero's request for comment on the incident.

“What I saw in that video was deeply disturbing,” she told The Santanero. “If, as the video appears to show, a resident was already on the ground and being restrained when officers repeatedly struck him in the face and kneeled on, that raises serious questions about whether the force being used was necessary and consistent with department policy.”

She also cautioned against reaching a final conclusion before the evidence is reviewed.

“We should not prejudge the outcome before that process is complete, but we also should not minimize what residents can plainly see in the video,” Jessie Lopez said.

Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez used his remarks to make four requests.

First, he called on Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer to drop what Hernandez described as “bogus charges” against Lopez. He disputed the cannabis allegation, asserting that Lopez was outside his home and more than 1,000 feet from a school and daycare.

The charges remain pending, and Lopez has pleaded not guilty.

Second, Hernandez called on Spitzer to investigate the officers involved and consider criminal charges.

“Spitzer, investigate this matter and file charges,” Hernandez said. “Investigate Santa Ana police officers who violate the public's trust. And better yet, turn this department and help them have a new leaf in the community. Help us turn the leaf. Hold some of these officers accountable.”

Third, Hernandez called for allegations of police misconduct to be investigated independently rather than by the Police Department itself.

“When there is misconduct, police should not investigate police,” Hernandez said. “They always, for some reason, never find anything wrong.”

And fourth, Hernandez called for the release of police records, including officers' names and body-worn camera footage requested by members of the public.

“I am going to be a champion and hold my colleagues and this city accountable to be consistent with public records law, and that is that public records belong to the public,” Hernandez said. “If you are a police officer who works for the public, guess what? When you're out there on the street, your badge number, your name, your body cam belongs to the people. They request it, we're going to give it to them.”

Hernandez began those demands by apologizing to Florentino Lopez “on behalf of the Santa Ana community” and saying no member of the community should be “brutalized by a police officer.”

Councilmember Phil Bacerra took a more neutral approach.

“The video definitely raised some serious concerns for me, but I'm gonna resist the temptation to make declarations about the situation until the independent investigation is complete,” Bacerra said. “If it is ultimately found that the officers did not follow Santa Ana Police policy, which that policy is to use only that amount of force that reasonably appears necessary to accomplish a legitimate law enforcement purpose, then I expect justice to be served swiftly and effectively in a way that makes it abundantly clear that we will not tolerate this sort of behavior and those sorts of actions in this city.”

Bacerra ended by welcoming the unanimous decision on how the city would move forward, leaving a determination about the officers' conduct to the investigation.

Phan took a more explanatory approach, addressing residents in the audience who were calling for the officers to be fired.

As a working city attorney herself, she said her position is that an officer who violates policy should be terminated, but explained that the city still has to comply with California's Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, commonly known as POBR.

“But California law has POBR. You know this. Chispa [CSO OC] knows this,” Phan said. “And the City of Santa Ana cannot violate state law, because if we fire any employee in violation of state law, whether it's an officer under POBR or other employees under their vested rights, they can not only get their job back, they will get back pay, and they will be able to sue the city.”

Phan then pointed to the possibility of change at the state level.

“We have two individuals on this dais who may eventually end up at the state,” she said. “The state needs to change POBR.”

Until then, she said, Santa Ana has to operate within the law as it currently exists.

“If we want to hold wrongdoers accountable, we have to follow the process,” Phan said.

She also said the council-directed investigation should examine policies and procedures to prevent similar incidents and that when the city says it will release records under the California Public Records Act, it should do so “expeditiously.”

The council has seen body-camera footage

Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza disclosed another significant detail during his remarks: Councilmembers had already viewed body-worn camera footage of the encounter.

“The video on social media, as well as the body cam footage that we all saw, at least we did up here. It was disturbing and disappointing,” Penaloza said. “And this is something that, at the end of the day, the buck stops with us up here on the City Council.”

He said he wanted the independent investigation completed quickly.

“It’s all on video and the investigation should not take that long,” Penaloza said.

The body-worn camera footage viewed by councilmembers has not been publicly released. Penaloza ended by asking city officials to alert the council quickly if funding or other issues threatened to delay the investigation.

Amezcua also cautioned that the investigations would not be completed overnight, but said the process should not drag on for years.

“It is not going to happen overnight. We know that, but it shouldn’t also take five years or three years,” Amezcua said. “It should be pretty quick within the guidelines of POBR, as Councilmember Phan had indicated.”

Exactly when the public will see the body-worn camera footage viewed by councilmembers remains unclear.

The council unanimously directed that the officers' names and related body-worn camera, audio and video recordings be released if it is legally determined that great bodily injury resulted from the use of force.

Jaden Michaca's mother asks for body-camera footage

The question of when police footage becomes public extended beyond the Lopez case Tuesday night.

Maribel Michaca, whose 15-year-old son Jaden Michaca was fatally shot by Santa Ana police on June 14, approached the microphone and asked the city to release the complete, unedited body-worn camera footage of her son's shooting.

So far, SAPD has released a Critical Incident Community Briefing containing selected portions of body-worn camera footage from the incident. Michaca was asking for the underlying footage without the edits and selections made for that presentation.

Michaca told councilmembers her son had struggled with his mental health for nearly two years and that Santa Ana police had responded to her home before as she tried to get him help.

She called for greater mental-health awareness and de-escalation training for officers, along with greater use of less-lethal options when police encounter someone in crisis.

As she spoke, Michaca repeatedly paused and cried.

“I'm a grieving mother, and I close my eyes and I see my son on the floor,” she said. “And there's nothing that I could have done to save him, even though I was screaming for help.”

“In my mind, I never called 911 for them to come and kill my son,” Michaca said. “I wanted the help that he needed.”

She asked the city for more mental-health resources so families can have confidence that calling 911 for help will not result in a similar tragedy.

Public trust in policing

The concerns raised Tuesday come amid broader scrutiny of SAPD's use of force, transparency and relationship with residents.

In June 2025, SAPD faced scrutiny over its response to demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement. On June 12, The Santanero witnessed officers firing less-lethal projectiles toward demonstrators before police announced an unlawful assembly.

Public records requests filed by The Santanero in August 2025 remain unresolved, with the city citing an investigative-records exemption for some records. The Santanero renewed those requests in July and requested an audit in late September as city officials continued to emphasize transparency.

More recently, residents who monitor immigration enforcement activity in Santa Ana have accused local police of directing enforcement attention toward ICE watchers while failing to adequately address their complaints about the conduct of federal immigration agents.

SAPD has maintained that it does not participate in civil immigration enforcement.

What happens next

Both investigations are now moving forward while Florentino Lopez's criminal case continues. His next court dates are scheduled for Oct. 13 and Oct. 15.

The public is also waiting to see body-worn camera footage that Penaloza said councilmembers have already viewed.

The criminal case and the investigations address separate questions: prosecutors will have to prove the allegations filed against Lopez, while investigators will determine whether the officers who arrested him acted within the law and SAPD policy.