More than two and a half years after Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed 28-year-old Martin Sebastian outside a City Terrace market, California prosecutors have announced they will not file charges against any of the five deputies involved. The California Department of Justice said evidence could not disprove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the deputies reasonably believed they faced imminent death or serious injury when Sebastian pointed what turned out to be a replica firearm in their direction.
The shooting happened the night of March 16, 2024, after deputies responded to a call at El Tio Tono Market near Pomeroy Street and North Eastman Avenue. Dispatch logs show deputies were first sent at 9:20 p.m. for a disturbance involving a metal stick, an alert that was updated within minutes to describe a subject holding a black handgun, according to records detailed by CBS News. The dispatch update came within minutes of the initial call. State investigators later recovered the replica firearm at the location, per the California Department of Justice's account carried by MyNewsLA.
Sebastian died at the scene. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner formally identified him two days later, on March 18, 2024, confirming the shooting occurred in the City Terrace neighborhood of unincorporated East Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Who Was Involved and What the State Found
Records maintained by the state DOJ name the five deputies involved as Charles Park, Joaquin Pena, Sergio Manapat, Steven Martinez, and Jesse De La Fuente — identifying detail that wasn't part of the department's initial public statements in 2024. The state's review fell under Assembly Bill 1506, enacted in 2020, which transferred responsibility for investigating fatal police shootings from local authorities to the state DOJ.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said the report may offer closure to Sebastian's family and the surrounding community, adding that his office's work is meant to ensure officer-involved shootings comply with the law and that AB 1506 is crucial to achieving that. The department concluded the evidence was insufficient to support criminal prosecution of the deputies and said it expects no additional action in the case. The state's findings, reported by MyNewsLA, said the evidence could not disprove a reasonable belief of imminent death or serious bodily injury in this case.
That review process is not always fast. A statewide analysis published in June 2026 found AB 1506 investigations frequently stretch beyond two years, partly because local agencies routinely pause their own internal criminal inquiries while the state's review is pending, according to CalMatters' reporting on the law's statewide impact. The Sebastian case, closed roughly 31 months after the shooting, fits that pattern.
Tense Scene After Shooting
The night of the shooting, crowds gathered near the scene around 10:45 p.m. and tried to engage with responding officers, prompting the Sheriff's Department to set up an expanded security perimeter, per the same CBS News account.
Three Recommendations for the Sheriff's Department
Even though no deputy will face charges, the state's October 20 report laid out three policy recommendations for LASD. The first calls for amending the department's body-worn camera policy and adding training on when cameras should be activated and what can and cannot be discussed during post-shooting debriefs. The second recommends stricter compliance with sequestration policies meant to preserve the integrity of investigations. The third calls for updated policy and additional training on preserving evidence tied to deputy-involved shootings.
The recommendations address department policy and training on cameras, sequestration and evidence preservation. The Sebastian case is one of several fatal deputy-involved shootings Hoodline has tracked in East Los Angeles, including another fatal shooting in the area and a separate homicide investigation into the killing of an East LA teen near Sixth and Fraser that LASD's Homicide Bureau handled this year.
