LOS ANGELES — An ex-LAPD officer who shot and killed an unarmed homeless man in 2015 — setting off a now decadelong legal fight over whether or not he should face criminal charges — was arrested on a felony murder warrant Thursday, authorities said.
Clifford Proctor, 60, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after flying back to the U.S. from a foreign country, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal case.
“The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of the arrest of a former LAPD officer at Los Angeles International Airport on a felony murder warrant,” the department said in a statement.
Proctor fired two fatal shots into the back of Brendon Glenn, 29, after a dispute with a bouncer outside a bar near the Venice Speedway in May 2015. Glenn was unarmed at the time and the shooting sparked outrage and protests. Former Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck publicly called for Proctor to be charged in the shooting, but ex-District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined bring a case in 2018.
Sources previously told The Los Angeles Times that a warrant for Proctor’s arrest was issued last year, after then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón had the case reviewed by a special prosecutor, Lawrence Middleton, whom he hired to reexamine prosecutions of police in on-duty shootings. District Attorney Nathan Hochman fired Middleton earlier this year.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment. Calls to Gascón, Middleton and Michael Gennaco, the special prosecutor Hochman placed over the case earlier this year, were not immediately returned.
Bill Seki, Proctor’s former defense attorney, said he had no information about an arrest. Court records do not show the filing of a criminal complaint against Proctor.
Proctor was known to be living outside the country at the time Gascón obtained the arrest warrant last year, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times.
Proctor and another officer responded to reports of Glenn and his dog causing a disturbance after he’d been kicked out of the Bank of Venice restaurant on Windward Avenue in 2015, according to a report issued by the district attorney’s office when they declined to prosecute Proctor.
Glenn’s dog moved toward Proctor, who threatened to shoot the animal before ordering Glenn to leave the area, the report said. Glenn responded by hurling several racial slurs at Proctor. Both men are Black.
Glenn walked away from the area and the officers followed, the report said. After Glenn got into an altercation with a bouncer at a different bar, Proctor and his partner tried to arrest Glenn, the report said.
During the ensuing struggle, Proctor shot Glenn twice in the back while the officers were wrestling with him on the ground. In 2016, Proctor’s attorney said Glenn was reaching for his partner’s gun, but footage from the scene contradicted that claim.
Glenn’s hand was never seen “on or near any portion” of the holster, according to a report made by the city’s Police Commission in 2016, and Proctor’s partner never made “any statements or actions” suggesting Glenn was trying to take the gun.
Proctor resigned from the LAPD in 2017.
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