Compton youth academy leader rousted from his sleep, wrongfully detained by LASD deputies: Video
COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) -- Derrick Cooper was in his Compton home, which doubles as a youth academy, early Tuesday morning when Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrived on an attempted burglary call.
This building was not burglarized. The door was locked. Cooper points to a hole in the screen door, intended as a mail slot. He says, and home surveillance video suggests, deputies reached in through the slot and unlocked his door.
The deputies then made their way to the back, where Cooper was sleeping. Until he wasn't.
"All I could see was the flashlight and the guns being pointed at me," said Cooper, who leads the Compton-based LA City Wildcats nonprofit.
When he learned the people in his home were law enforcement members, he followed every order. He did not know why he was being detained.
He also didn't have any pants on, and says he asked the deputies if he could cover up.
"And they told me no," said Cooper. "Right then I became helpless because my dignity was stolen from me."
Deputies put Cooper in the back of a patrol vehicle and later released him.
The Sheriff's Department told ABC7 that its Compton station is reviewing the incident. After the incident, Cooper's surveillance video caught a deputy apologizing, but Cooper feels it isn't enough.
He says it's the second time the Sheriff's Department has wrongfully detained him. The first was in 2019.
He didn't sue then. His attorney now lists some of the charges he's considering.
"Definitely the intentional infliction of emotional distress," said Person-Lynn. "There's the battery, the assault, there's the unlawful entry and violation of his 4th amendment rights."
Person-Lynn plans to file a claim against the county within the next week.
"I expect so much more from our law enforcement," said Cooper. "We need them. We want them to do what we need them to do and that's protect us. Not to keep us in fear. And as a Black man in my community, I'm in fear."
