By Libor Jany | Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles police SWAT officer who was caught on body-camera video telling his colleagues “happy hunting” before a fatal police shooting last spring has received a two-day suspension following an internal investigation, according to Los Angeles Police Department disciplinary records.
The newly released records identify the officer by his rank — police officer III — but doesn’t name him because of state privacy laws. His remark was made while preparing with other SWAT officers to surround a man named Leron James, who was armed with a handgun and had barricaded himself in a downtown L.A. apartment building. Police say James, 54, fired down on officers from a window and the officers returned fire, killing him.
Department officials have said that the remark was caught on the body camera of another officer who happened to be walking past and was discovered during a subsequent review of video from the incident.
The episode was seized on by department critics, who said it reflected a culture of brutality and callousness within SWAT.
Greg “Baba” Akili, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said that the two-day suspension was, at best, a slap on the wrist that sends the message that the department isn’t serious about holding officers accountable.
“We’re not seeking just to punish people, we’re seeking real accountability, because by having real accountability we can prevent this from happening,” he said Saturday.
The elite SWAT unit had been under scrutiny after a former sergeant sued the city alleging that the team operates under a “culture of violence” driven by a group of influential members known as the “SWAT mafia. ” The suit, brought in 2020 by former Sgt. Tim Colomey, alleged that certain problematic members of SWAT “glamorize the use of lethal force” and ensured that officers who “share the same values” are promoted in the unit while commanders turn a…
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