Former LAPD officer arrested for fatal 2015 shooting of homeless man in Venice Beach
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A former Los Angeles Police Department officer who fatally shot an unarmed homeless man in Venice in 2015 was in custody on Friday following his arrest at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities confirmed.
Clifford Proctor, now 60, was arrested at the airport on Thursday on a felony murder warrant, according to police and jail records. He is being held on a $2 million bail.
He was arrested as he flew into LAX, and had apparently been out of the country.
"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 LAPD said in a statement on social media Friday morning. "We will continue to support the justice system as this case proceeds and will work collaboratively with our law enforcement partners throughout the process."
Proctor fatally shot Brendon Glenn, 29, on May 5, 2015, following an apparent dispute that occurred between Glenn and a bar bouncer just steps away from the Venice Beach boardwalk.
Proctor said that, at the time, he thought Glenn was reaching for his partner's gun. LAPD investigators concluded that Glenn was on his stomach when Proctor stepped back and fired twice, hitting Glenn in the back. Glenn's death sparked a series of community protests and demands that the officer be charged with a crime.
"If anything, an ounce of hope was restored for us that justice will be brought," Glenn's sister, Brittany Glenn, told Eyewitness News. "It was almost like we hit an impasse; the train stopped dead in the tracks. So once we put Brendon to rest, we knew that there was still a missing piece, and this was the missing piece to the puzzle of, 'Well, what next in terms of the perpetrator?'"
In April 2016, the Los Angeles Police Commission ruled the shooting was "unjustified." Then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck wrote in a report to the commission that there was no evidence to independently show there was a "perception that a deadly threat was present." Beck had recommended that Lacey file charges against Proctor, calling the shooting a "criminal act."
The Los Angeles Times reported last year that then-District Attorney George Gascón hired a special prosecutor shortly after he took office to reopen investigations into four police shootings in which Lacey declined to file charges, including the Proctor case.
In March 2018, then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that her office would not pursue any charges against Proctor, citing "insufficient evidence," even though Beck had recommended that the officer be prosecuted. The investigation was reopened by Gascón, leading to the felony murder warrant being issued a year ago.
The case went silent until Proctor arrived at LAX on Thursday night.
It was unclear when Proctor might appear in court. A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office told ABC7 that prosecutors were aware of reports of Proctor's arrest, but "at this time, our office is unable to comment."
The original investigation into the shooting during Lacey's administration included officer body-camera footage, surveillance videos, statements from 10 civilian eyewitnesses, DNA analysis and the "opinion of a nationally recognized use-of-force expert," Lacey said at the time.
The use-of-force expert concluded that "Proctor's actions as seen on the surveillance video were consistent with his having observed a threat posed by Glenn," according to an 83-page memorandum released at the time by the District Attorney's Office on the investigation into the shooting.
Glenn -- who was "given multiple opportunities to leave the location" and "chose to be confrontational and aggressive with civilians and the officers" -- had 18 arrests, 12 convictions and seven pending cases, along with multiple bench warrants for failure to appear in court, and toxicological testing determined that his blood contained both alcohol and marijuana at the time of the death, according to the memorandum.
"A thorough review of the law and the evidence in this matter leads to the conclusion that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Proctor's use of deadly force in the altercation with Glenn on May 5, 2015, was not justified," according to the memorandum. The report noted that while Proctor's actions were found to violate LAPD policy, the "standard of proof used in administrative proceedings is not the standard of proof used in criminal trials."
Lacey noted that portions of the surveillance video played an important role in the decision not to file charges, and that snippets from the video were embedded into the 83-page decision to allow a "window into the evidence that we considered in this case."
She said her office also considered DNA evidence that showed Glenn could not be excluded as a possible contributor to a mixed DNA sample from the holster of Proctor's partner.
Eyewitness News spoke to the Glenn family's attorney on Friday.
"Who's the better expert than Chief Beck, at the time, who viewed that video and said there was absolutely no justification for the use of deadly force in that circumstance? You can get an expert witness to say virtually anything if you prompt them to, and in this instance, you have a person who is down on all fours, down on the ground. Officer Proctor steps away from him, backs up, and shoots him in the back. That's murder," attorney James DeSimone said.
The city of Los Angeles paid $4 million to settle wrongful-death lawsuits filed by Glenn's relatives. Proctor left the department in 2017.
City News Service contributed to this report.
