The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department has launched an investigation after two deputies were seen using force to detain two people at a grocery store last month in a “disturbing” video.
Deputies responded to a report of a robbery in progress at a grocery store in Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County June 24 and tried to detain a man and a woman police said matched the description given by store security personnel, the sheriff’s department said in a statement Monday.
“As deputies attempted to detain the individuals described by store security personnel, the encounter escalated into a use of force incident that was captured by a community member with a cellphone camera,” the statement said. “The video is disturbing.”
What does the video show?
One of the body-camera videos released by the department begins with a deputy arriving and repeatedly telling a man to put his hands on the hood of the car and sit down as the man insists he hasn’t done anything wrong. Two deputies approach the man, say they are going to pat him down and place him in handcuffs as he complains about a problem with his arm, the video shows.
The man can be heard asking why he is being arrested, and a deputy replies he is being detained. A deputy forces him to the ground as the man says that he is “not going to fight” and that his wife has cancer, according to the footage.
Meanwhile, the other deputy can be seen in a second video released by the department approaching a woman who appears to be filming the interaction on her cellphone. She can be heard saying “you can’t touch me” as he reaches toward her and throws her to the ground.
The footage shows the deputy repeatedly tells her to “stop” and get on the ground as he tries to restrain her. During the struggle, the deputy threatens to punch the woman in the face and she threatens to sue him, according to the video.
The woman says she can’t breathe moments before he sprays her in the face with OC spray, also called pepper spray, the video shows. He threatens to spray her again and then places her in handcuffs. She repeatedly asks why the deputy is “manhandling” her.
The man asks whether the woman is OK, and the woman later says she can’t see as the deputies place them in separate police cars.
“All you had to do was listen,” a deputy told the woman.
“I didn’t do anything,” she replied, later claiming the deputy was angry because she was filming the encounter.
What happened to the deputies?
Both deputies have been reassigned from field duty, according to the statement.
The department is investigating the incident to determine whether the use of force was “reasonable, necessary, appropriate and proportional to the level of actions described” and will review footage of the incident including body camera, surveillance and cellphone video, the statement said.
Tom Yu, an attorney who said he is representing the deputy who restrained the woman in the video, told USA TODAY he doesn’t believe his client will be disciplined, fired or criminally charged.
“I would just invite you and others to really look at what these two people did,” Yu said. “I understand that it’s a use of force, it’s going to get investigated, but I don’t think there’s enough focus on what they did to cause the deputies to use the force.”
What happened to the man and woman?
The sheriff’s department said the man and the woman were not injured during the arrest. The man was arrested on charges of resisting a police officer and misdemeanor trespassing, and the woman was arrested on charges of attempting to deter or resist an officer performing their duty and assault and battery, according to the department.
A protest will be held Wednesday at the grocery store to demand the officer who forced the woman to the ground be fired, the Los Angeles Times reported.
