LOS ANGELES _ Two people were detained at the Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters Tuesday morning after a substance was thrown at Police Chief Charlie Beck during a meeting of the city Police Commission, officials said.
The incident involved activists who normally attend the commission's sometimes contentious weekly meetings, said Josh Rubenstein, the department's chief spokesman.
The LAPD would not confirm the names of the people involved in the incident. But Black Lives Matter activists at the meeting identified them as Melina Abdullah, a California State University, Los Angeles professor and local Black Lives Matter organizer, and Sheila Hines-Brim, whose niece Wakeisha Wilson died while in the department's custody in 2016.
Beck was not hurt, and it was not immediately clear what the substance was. Rubenstein said the activists may have claimed they threw Wilson's ashes at Beck.
Nearly a dozen Los Angeles firefighters were seen entering LAPD's downtown headquarters later Tuesday morning. Rubenstein said they were checking to make sure the substance was not dangerous.
An LAFD representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some activists have rejected the finding that Wilson committed suicide, and claimed she died as a result of a confrontation with detention officers.
Police officials have said that there were no signs of an altercation and that the officers did not use force against Wilson. Her death, however, prompted internal reviews of some LAPD practices, including when jail staff should contact a mental health unit about an inmate, and how police and coroner's officials notify families about deaths.
Wilson's mother did not learn of her daughter's death until after the woman missed a court hearing.
