On a brisk February evening at a park in South Central, teenagers played soccer under the glow of floodlights.
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WARNING: SENSITIVE CONTENT
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This story includes frequent references to suicide and self-harm.
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If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or visit the 988 website for online chat.
Just up the street, Ysidro Leon motioned to an altar he prepared for his deceased brother, Oscar Leon Sanchez, under their covered patio.
Fresh flowers sat atop a gold tablecloth and candles burned all around. In the center, a picture of Leon Sanchez leaned up against a larger print of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“My brother liked her a lot, he had shirts, he had caps of the Virgin of Guadalupe … Well, we, like every Mexican, you understand, we always venerate people and our saints,” Leon said in Spanish.
Leon Sanchez’s photo was marked with the day he was killed by LAPD officers: Jan. 3, 2023.
An altar for Oscar Leon Sanchez.
Borders and barriers
The first week of January was a deadly one for interactions with LAPD. Within just 48 hours, Takar Smith, Keenan Anderson, and Leon Sanchez were added to the long list of people who have died at the hands of police officers. Two of the men — Smith and Leon Sanchez — appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis when they were shot and killed.
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