A jury has ruled in favor of the city of Los Angeles in a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed he was shot in the groin with a rubber bullet without any reason during a mass protest in the Fairfax District in 2020. The protest was in response to the death of George Floyd.
Bradley Steyn filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2020. On Tuesday, the jury determined that Officer Brandon Purece did use force against Steyn, but it was not a violation of Steyn’s First Amendment rights, race, or political association. The jury also found that Purece was not negligent.
The city’s court papers state that Steyn kicked an officer in front of a crowd of thousands of people. Officers Purece and Jeffrey Rivera used reasonable force to stop Steyn’s aggression towards the officer.
The city’s attorneys stated in court papers that Steyn’s kick caused the officer to fall, resulting in injuries to his stomach, shoulder, and elbow. The officer’s pistol magazine also fell out of his vest.
The defense lawyers mentioned in their court papers that Steyn is approximately 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs around 240 pounds.
Purece decided to use force because he observed Steyn’s previous assault on an officer and believed that Steyn was moving towards the fallen officer with the intention to continue the assault or breach the skirmish line, according to the city’s attorney’s court filings.
In his lawsuit, Steyn argued that he was shot during a protest on May 30, 2020, following the death of George Floyd. He claims that no officer gave any dispersal orders, warning the crowd about the use of less-lethal firearms, or issued direct orders to him before he was shot.
The lawsuit mentioned that the LAPD’s Media Relations Division asserted that Steyn kicked an officer, causing him to fall on his back. However, according to Steyn’s court papers, if the officer did fall, he quickly stood back up without any injuries. Steyn further alleged that the officer who shot him did so in retaliation for kicking the other officer.
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