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A man was arrested on Tuesday after approaching police officers with a samurai sword, which he reportedly used to attack his mother earlier that night.
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers responded to a call about an assault in progress at a home in Mid-Wilshire.
They arrived to find the suspect, Eric Herrera, brandishing a samurai sword while walking in the middle of the street.
As the officers confronted Herrera, he drew the sword and approached. ‘Officers attempted to de-escalate the situation and gave the suspect verbal commands to put the weapon down,’ the LAPD stated. ‘The suspect refused to cooperate with the officer’s commands as he approached officers with sword in hand.’
Police identified the attacker as 23-year-old Eric Herrera (Picture: LAPD)
The LAPD officers used a taser to subdue the agitated man.
They found the victim in front of her home with multiple lacerations on her arms. Officers applied a tourniquet to stop her bleeding before being transported to a local hospital. She is in stable condition.
On Thursday, the LAPD released body camera footage of the incident.
In the video, an officer tasers Herrera after telling to ‘back up.’ Another officer tasers him a second time after he tries to brandish it again while lying on the ground.
Family members said the victim was the attacker’s mother (Picture: LAPD)
‘Drop the sword! Drop it now!’ the officers yell.
When they find the victim, she tells the officers ‘I’m bleeding everywhere.’ She shows them wounds on her left arm, and says there is another wound ‘somewhere on my body’ as she sits on the sidewalk, her hands and legs covered in blood.
She tells officers that her daughter is inside the house, but unhurt. ‘I told her to hide,’ she says.
Witnesses originally said the attacker also harmed a family dog, but family members disputed this account (Picture: LAPD)
Police said the fight began as a dispute between two family members, but did not disclose the relationship between the victim and the attacker.
Another family member told KTLA that the victim was Herrera’s mother.
Herrera was charged with attempted murder and is being held on $100,000 bail.
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Eric Herrera was brandishing a samurai sword in a Los Angeles street.