Photo: Courtesy of Bradley Gage
A Los Angeles sheriff's deputy shot and killed a 27-year-old woman who called 911 to report she was being attacked by an ex-boyfriend, police officials and attorneys for the victim's family said Thursday. Records show the deputy had killed another person in similar circumstances three years ago.
On December 4, Niani Finlayson called police and "reported that her boyfriend would not leave her alone, at which time screams and sounds of a struggle were heard," the LA Sheriff's Department (LASD) said in a statement. When officers arrived at the apartment in Lancaster, a city in the northern region of LA County, they could hear screaming, LASD said.
Finlayson was inside with her nine-year-old daughter and had been injured by her ex-boyfriend and wanted him removed, her family's lawyers said. The exact circumstances leading to the fatal shooting are unclear and LASD has so far declined to release body camera footage.
LASD alleged in a statement that Finlayson had a knife and threatened her boyfriend, at which point Deputy Ty Shelton opened fire. The family disputed the police report, saying Finlayson was clearly a victim of domestic violence, needed help and posed no threat to officers. The coroner said she died of "multiple gunshot wounds."
Finlayson was a mother of two and her daughter, Xaisha, witnessed the shooting.
"The police lied that my mother threatened them," Xaisha said Thursday at a press conference with her grandparents, calling for Shelton to be prosecuted. "She was my best friend. She was always there for me. It's unbelievable that she's gone and not coming back. I miss my mother." The girl said her two-year-old sister keeps asking where their mother is, but she doesn't know how to respond.
Finlayson's family filed a legal claim Thursday against the county and the sheriff, alleging wrongful death, assault and civil rights violations.
"You have someone who asks the police for help, and she gets killed by the police who ask them for help," said Bradley Gage, the family's attorney. "When you ask the police for help, you think the officers will protect and serve you. You don't expect them to hunt you down and kill you."
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LASD said in a statement Thursday that it had not officially received the family's claim but would release body camera footage next week. The inspector general's office would conduct a "robust review process ... thoroughly investigating and evaluating every aspect of the shooting to see if department policies and procedures were followed," and the district attorney's office LA would determine whether the shooting was legally justified, the statement said, adding: "The department is deeply committed to protecting our diverse communities without bias and prejudice."
Shelton could not be reached and the sheriff's deputy union did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Previously, Shelton killed Michael Thomas, 61, on June 11, 2020, in a similar case. Shelton had responded to a possible domestic violence call and when officers arrived, they demanded he open the door, officials said. Thomas' girlfriend later said she had had a verbal argument with Thomas, who was unarmed, and that he had tried to stop the officers, citing the Fourth Amendment. Thomas also feared police would shoot him, his family said, and officials later confirmed that Thomas had said: "I fear for my life now. You guys...just killed someone."
Shelton fatally shot Thomas in the chest. The murder was not caught on camera. The case was one in a series of LASD killings that summer that sparked widespread protests, and prosecutors declined to file charges against Shelton. LASD did not respond to questions about Shelton's earlier killing.
Finlayson's mother, Tracie Hall, said her daughter had worked to become a nurse and home health aide, designed her own clothes and wanted to create a phone app for children. "I'm going to miss my daughter braiding my hair, the simple things. It's so unfair," she said, adding, "I hope Ty Shelton looks himself in the mirror and says, 'I destroyed another life for no reason.' [He] put my granddaughter in so much danger."
"He is not allowed to walk around freely and continue to have a job and provide for his family because my daughter is not here to provide for her family," she said.
Finlayson's father, Lamont Finlayson, said she had recently moved into the apartment and was excited to spend her first holiday there: "It breaks me to my bones. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't walk... they didn't tase her, search her, hit her with a stick or put her in a bean bag. They just shot her like a dog in her own house... and took so much from us."
Myesha Lopez, Thomas' daughter, said Thursday that she was outraged but not surprised when she learned that Shelton had fatally shot another person: "He has been given a license to kill ... and once again he has violated someone's civil rights by going to their to go home and kill there. them." She said it was particularly disturbing given the way she and others had protested and warned that Shelton was dangerous: "It is the fruit of my greatest fear - that someone else would relive what I went through."
Local advocacy groups in the Antelope Valley region of north LA have called for Shelton's resignation and indictment.
"We want him to get out of there and prosecuted and not just moved to another county to stay in law enforcement," said Waunette Cullors, co-founder of Cancel the Contract, a group that supports the family and organizes against police brutality in the area. "There is no responsibility. The sheriff keeps making excuses to justify killing us."
The sheriff's department has been repeatedly accused of using brutal force against black women in the region. In June, an officer was caught on camera throwing a woman to the ground outside a Lancaster grocery store and putting his knee on her. The woman had recorded a police encounter. LASD also released footage in July of an encounter in Palmdale, a neighboring city, in which a deputy punched a woman twice in the face as she held her newborn baby.
"Sheriffs are in power in the Antelope Valley and are allowed to harm black women in particular, but nothing happens," Cullors said. "Everyone sees it as a norm."
