The Los Angeles County sheriff says a bystander’s cellphone footage showing a deputy violently tackling a woman while she filmed a man being handcuffed, then pepper-spraying her in the face, is “disturbing,” and community groups on Wednesday called for the department’s new chief to hold his agency accountable.
The June 24 incident in the city of Lancaster follows several cases that have drawn scrutiny to the department amid allegations of excessive use of force by its deputies. It’s also testing the reform efforts of the new sheriff, Robert Luna, a former Long Beach police chief who has vowed to overhaul the nation’s largest sheriff’s department since taking it over in December after defeating incumbent Alex Villanueva.
Both officers were pulled off field duty, Luna said during an afternoon news conference, and could face discipline ranging from letters of reprimand all the way up to dismissal if misconduct is found. He didn’t identify the deputies.
Luna said he didn’t learn about the encounter until six days after it occurred. The department released footage from the deputies’ body-worn cameras on Monday.
Luna said he had seen the body-camera video as well as bystander video that spread on social media.
“It’s disturbing. There’s no ifs and buts about it,” the sheriff said.
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The Associated Press’ efforts to reach the bystander Wednesday were not immediately successful.
The sheriff said his department has opened an investigation into the deputies’ use of force and had notified the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission and also federal monitors, who are overseeing reforms that the department agreed to in 2015. That agreement settled federal allegations that deputies in the Antelope Valley, including Lancaster, had engaged in excessive use of force and racially-biased policing that included disproportionately stopping or searching Blacks and Latinos.
The couple, whose names were not…
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