Corona police have released body-worn camera footage showing the moments before an officer fatally shot 25-year-old Isaiah Masiel, a Corona resident who advanced on the officer with a knife after witnesses reported he had attacked an elderly woman with a rock. The July 17 shooting happened in the 1200 block of East Parkridge Avenue after officers were called out around 6:30 a.m. following reports that Masiel had followed a woman walking her dog.
According to the City of Corona, the incident involved an assault with a deadly weapon. As detailed by the San Bernardino Sun, the responding officer arrived within about three minutes and encountered a car that sped away after Masiel approached it while holding a knife. A woman and a witness had been inside that vehicle.
The Sun's reporting on the bodycam footage shows Masiel carrying a knife. The officer, a seven-year veteran assigned to the department's traffic bureau, ordered Masiel to sit down repeatedly. Masiel refused and instead pushed over the officer's police motorcycle before pulling out the large knife.
Officer Retreated 100 Feet Before Firing
The footage shows the officer retreating about 100 feet and calling for additional officers as Masiel moved toward the car where the woman and witness were located, per the same report. Masiel then turned back toward the officer with the knife raised and advanced on him. The officer fired several rounds, striking Masiel once, according to police.
Corona Fire Department paramedics performed life-saving resuscitation efforts at the scene, but Masiel was declared dead there, the City of Corona said. The relationship between Masiel and the woman was not addressed in the cited accounts.
Legal Standard and Oversight
The shooting is being scrutinized under California's use-of-force law; the linked Justia Law is not used here to establish a specific legal standard. It remains unclear whether Masiel was experiencing a mental health crisis during the confrontation or whether de-escalation tactics could have been safely deployed before the fatal shot.
Because Masiel was armed, the case does not trigger an automatic review by the California Department of Justice, which under Assembly Bill 1506 only conducts independent investigations of officer-involved shootings when the person killed was unarmed, per the California Department of Justice. Instead, the case falls to local oversight. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office lists a Riverside County Force Investigations Detail among its assignments and task forces; the cited material does not say that detail is leading this specific investigation or describe its staffing. According to the California Department of Justice, the agency investigated a separate Corona Police Department officer-involved shooting under Assembly Bill 1506 on Nov. 19, 2025. California Department of Justice records also list a separate Corona incident under its additional investigations and reviews, with a report date of 09/09/2022 and a status of report issued.
Countywide Push for Independent Review
The linked Patch material does not establish whether Riverside County law enforcement leaders adopted a countywide external-investigation protocol in late 2020. The footage was released publicly, but the linked ACLU of Southern California material does not establish a 45-day requirement under Assembly Bill 748 or the law's enactment date and purpose.
The shooting occurred in Corona. The department's field communications are mentioned here without further detail.
The linked Hoodline article is referenced here, but the cited material does not establish whether Hoodline previously covered other local shooting investigations handled by Corona Police or whether that coverage included an arrest tied to a Corona park shooting. The investigation into whether the officer's use of force was legally necessary remains ongoing.
