Inglewood police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 31-year-old woman and 32-year-old man who were apparently unconscious in a car when they were found by police in February 2016 are no longer with the department, Mayor James Butts announced Tuesday.
Butts issued a brief statement about the officers, but offered few specifics about the result of the department's internal investigation, noting the "department's report and any discipline that results from the report are confidential."
Questions have dogged the department since the Feb. 21, 2016, shooting at Manchester Boulevard at Inglewood Avenue that killed Kisha Michael, a mother of three boys, and Marquintan Sandlin, who had four daughters.
"I'm happy that everyone's bringing awareness to this," Kisha's sister, Trisha Michael, told NBC4 Tuesday. "To a sleeping couple, seven kids left behind and a year and a half. Finally these officers are fired."
At the time, police said officers who responded to a call about a vehicle stopped in a traffic lane around 3:10 a.m. saw that a woman in the vehicle had a gun on her lap. The officers took cover and ordered the people to get out of the vehicle, and an "officer-involved shooting" occurred. Michael was pronounced dead at the scene, while Sandlin died at a hospital.
Subsequent reports indicated that the couple appeared to be unconscious in the car when officers arrived, but Michael had a gun on her lap as she sat in the passenger seat.
It was unclear what type of exchange -- if any -- occurred between the couple and the officers before the shooting erupted. As many as five officers were believed to have been involved in the shooting. Autopsy reports cited by the Los Angeles Times indicated that Michael was shot 13 times and Sandlin was shot seven times. Both were found to have blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit for driving.
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The Times identified the officers as Michael Jaen, Richard Parcella, Jason Cantrell, Sean Reidy and Andrew Cohen. Four officers had two years or less with the Inglewood Police Department, and one served four years, a city spokeswoman told NBC4.
Butts' statement Tuesday said only that "officers involved in the incident are no longer members of the Inglewood Police Department." He did not say if the officers were fired, resigned or left the department voluntarily.
Butts did not specify the number of officers involved in the department's internal review of the shooting, nor did he shed any more light on the circumstances of the gunfire.
According to the mayor, the District Attorney's Office is continuing to review the shooting to determine if any criminal charges are warranted.
Relatives of Michael and Sandlin have taken part in protests over the past year demanding answers about the shooting. Michael's family has filed a lawsuit against the city.
Trisha Michael thinks pressure from Black Lives Matter activists helped bring about the officers' firings.
"Motivating me to be out there up front, to fight for my sister," she said. "She's not resting. She needed this. Her kids needed this. My family. A little bit of justice."
