Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon in the early hours of Saturday, June 15, 2024, and shot and killed the suspect. (RMGNews)
Los Angeles Police have identified the woman who brandished a knife and threatened a family member before turning the knife on officers and being shot and killed by them.
Officers responded to an apartment in the 9400 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City at 12:50 a.m. Saturday for a report of a woman attempting to attack a family member with a knife. The caller reported the woman was preventing the family from leaving the apartment.
Upon arrival, officers positioned themselves on the apartment’s second-floor landing, just outside the unit’s door. Officers attempted to speak to the woman unsuccessfully, but then heard loud banging on the door and a woman screaming, police said.
Police say a parent struck and killed a 2-year-old child while traveling in a camper at Dockweiler State Beach.
Officers believed the woman was “attempting to get to” the victim and forced entry into the apartment. Once inside, they encountered the woman and again yelled at her to drop the knife.
Police say she refused and lunged at officers while pointing the knife, at which point officers simultaneously fired their Tasers and shots at her.
The woman was taken to a local hospital where she later died. Police identified her Sunday as 23-year-old Joanna Lua.
No one else was injured. A 10-inch bread knife was recovered at the scene.