A grand jury indictment was unsealed on Friday, charging a former Los Angeles police officer in the May 2015 shooting death of an unarmed homeless man in Venice, California, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said.
Clifford Proctor pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.
Brendan Glenn, 29, was killed during a struggle with officers outside a bar where he had fought with a bouncer, and his name became a rallying cry against police shootings in Los Angeles. Both Glenn and Proctor are Black.
The office of the current Los Angeles district attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in a statement that the indictment comes after the previous district attorney, George Gascón, re-examined four use-of-force cases involving law enforcement officers, including Proctor’s case.
Hochman, who ousted Gascón in November’s election, will review the case and decide whether to proceed with the prosecution, the statement said.
Proctor’s lawyer, Anthony “Tony” Garcia, questioned the timing of the charges and noted that prosecutors declined to charge his client in 2018, according to the Times.
In 2018, the LA district attorney, Jackie Lacey, declined to press charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove Proctor acted unlawfully when he used deadly force.
A 2016 report to Los Angeles police’s civilian oversight board gave details of the shooting. Proctor and his partner responded shortly before midnight to a complaint about a homeless man harassing customers outside the Bank of Venice restaurant on Windward avenue.
Glenn, showed signs of intoxication, threatened to unleash his dog on them and shouted insults, including a racial epithet, officers said.
Glenn obeyed their order to leave the spot but immediately got into an altercation with a bouncer at the Townhouse bar, prompting the officers to detain him, which led to a struggle that ended with the shooting.
According to the report, Proctor told investigators Glenn reached for his partner’s holster as they struggled on the ground. “Everything was happening so fast,” Proctor said. “And everybody’s hands were flailing around.”
He shot Glenn in the back but Glenn did not seem to react. Proctor said he then had “a little tunnel vision” and fired a second shot. “I don’t really know where his hands were but he is still holding on.”
Proctor told investigators: “What was going through my mind when I fired the second shot was I honestly believed that this guy was on something strong, like some kind of drug. And the first round did absolutely nothing to affect him. He didn’t move.”
However, according to the report, video from the Townhouse bar, which has not been made public, contradicted Proctor’s version. “At no time during the incident can Glenn’s hand be observed on or near any portion of [the] holster,” said the Los Angeles police chief’s report. It also said that Proctor’s partner “did not feel any jerking movements” on the holster nor see Glenn reaching for his gun.
Glenn was on his stomach and trying to push himself up when Proctor shot him in the back, according to police. Proctor’s partner told investigators that he didn’t know why the officer opened fire, police have said.
Proctor resigned from the Los Angeles police department in 2017. The city paid $4m to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that was brought by Glenn’s relatives.
Proctor, 60, remains in jail. His next court date is on 3 November.
Rory Carroll contributed reporting
