The family of a California lab tech who was stabbed by a homeless career criminal and left to die after another homeless man stole the ambulance on site to save him is suing the city for $40 million.
Reinaldo Jesus LeFonts, 68, was charging his Tesla outside the Downey City Library last September when Giovanni Navarro, a man convicted of 28 crimes, knifed him to death, according to police.
Paramedics arrived on the scene, known to be a hotbed of crime, when another homeless man, Nicholas DeMarco, took off with the vehicle, leading police on a high-speed chase.
The pursuit ended with DeMarco wrecking the ambulance. Lefonts didn’t survive his stab wounds and died at the scene.
“In that moment, every second mattered. The City’s paramedics and rescue vehicle were Reinaldo’s only realistic chance of survival,” states a claim filed by the family seeking $40 million in damages, according to The OC Register.
The area surrounding the Downey City Library has over 670 calls to service in the span of three years. They included calls for assaults, robberies, sex crimes, arson, theft and narcotics violations. In 2015 a police officer was gunned down in the same parking lot Lefonts was stabbed, the claim says.
The claim goes on to say Navarro had been arrested for trespassing in the area less than 24 hours before he allegedly stabbed Lefonts.
“The City of Downey knew this parking lot was dangerous,” said Alexis Galindo, the attorney representing the family.
“They knew their rescue vehicle wasn’t properly equipped. And still, they did nothing,” he told the Register.
Fonts was a beloved lab tech at UC Irvine and had just retired three months before he was slashed to death according to reports.
“He enjoyed spending time with his family and his grandson, named ‘Little Ray,’” Galindo said
Navarro was charged with murder and a special allegation of using a weapon to commit the offense, according to court records.
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