latimes--2020-06-14--Robert Fuller's family mourns a 'survivor,' demands truth over his hanging death

Three Mylar balloons , tethered near the top of a thin tree , stirred in the breeze outside Palmdale City Hall on Saturday .
At the base lay bouquets of flowers wrapped in plastic and more than two dozen votive candles , their flames flickering .
The tree , which stands on the edge of a 2-acre courtyard known as Poncitlán Square , is now a memorial , one an angry , frustrated but mainly heartbroken crowd of nearly 2,000 dedicated to the memory of a 24-year-old Black man found hanging from its branches early Wednesday morning .
“ This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day forward , ” Pharaoh Mitchell of the Community Action League shouted into a microphone .
“ We want justice.
” The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner ’ s office initially called the death a suicide .
Fuller ’ s family and civic leaders quickly pushed back , insisting that it be investigated as a homicide and demanding an independent probe and autopsy , something the city also has requested .
“ The City of Palmdale is joining the family and the community ’ s call for justice and we do support a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city said in a statement , reversing a release issued Thursday in which City Manager J.J. Murphy labeled the death a suicide .
Murphy ’ s claim was repeated Friday by Capt .
Ron Shaffer of the L.A. County Sheriff ’ s Department .
“ This is really crazy to all of us , ” Fuller ’ s sister Diamond Alexander said .
“ We want to find out the truth of what really happened .
Everything that they ’ ve been telling us has not been right .
“ To be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it don ’ t make no sense , ” Alexander added .
“ My brother was not suicidal .
My brother was a survivor.
” Fuller ’ s family and friends described him as a peacemaker , a street-smart man with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a bright smile who loved music , anime and video games and mostly stayed to himself .
Days before he died , he attended a Black Lives Matter protest .
His body was found by a passerby at 3:39 a.m. Wednesday , a time when Fuller would never have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21 , a close friend since high school .
“ For my best friend to be gone , it ’ s hurting me , ” said Anderson , who was wearing a T-shirt depicting one of Fuller ’ s favorite characters from the Japanese anime TV series “ Dragon Ball Z.
” Fuller was too large and too muscular for the thin tree to support his weight for long , she said .
And he was too tall to hang from its lowest branches .
“ For people to say he did this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Anderson said .
“ For him to tie himself to that tree , it ’ s not possible.
” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Saturday requested that state Atty .
Gen. Xavier Becerra conduct an independent investigation into Fuller ’ s death .
Najee Ali , a community organizer and activist from South L.A. , has also called for an independent investigation .
“ Based on what I ’ ve seen , that does not add up , ” he said of the suicide claim , adding that Fuller ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ ve been told .
“ Historically the Palmdale-Lancaster area has had many complaints from Black residents who feel they ’ ve been the victim of racism and destruction .
It ’ s been problematic for decades , ” he said .
“ They said their family member had no history of mental illness , is not depressed .
So we have grave concerns , especially with the rise of hate crimes in recent years.
” The Antelope Valley has a substantial Black population .
There have been repeated allegations of racist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finding that officials worked to drive Black people out of public housing .
Five years ago , the Los Angeles County Housing Authority agreed to pay $ 2 million to victims of alleged discrimination , and some families who lost their housing assistance will have the chance to get it back .
At the same time , the Sheriff ’ s Department agreed to pay $ 700,000 and implement policies aimed at preventing racial bias .
The Justice Department launched an investigation in 2011 into allegations that people of color — particularly Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Lancaster and Palmdale were being harassed and discriminated against by sheriff ’ s deputies and county housing agency officials .
On Saturday , Ali led the crowd in a peaceful march from the site of Fuller ’ s death to the Sheriff ’ s Department station half a mile away .
The protesters , whose ranks swelled during the short journey , filled the northbound lanes of Sierra Highway , shutting down traffic .
Once they arrived , the marchers crowded around the entrance to the building , chanting Fuller ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watch commander as a dozen officers , clad in riot gear , clustered behind tinted glass doors , which remained closed .
After a half-hour wait , Lt. Derrick Ballentine came out of a side door and told Ali and the crowd that the department ’ s investigation into Fuller ’ s death was continuing and that he had no updates .
Asked if he , too , backed calls for an independent probe , Ballentine said yes .
The crowd then turned around and , beneath the whirl of a Sheriff ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ City Hall and the tree where Fuller ’ s body was found .
Directly beneath the tree , a short poem was etched into the concrete seven years ago .
The winning entry in a local poetry contest , it speaks of the “ smart black crows ” and the “ rainbow ” that “ led us here.
” The question Fuller ’ s family wants answered is what led him here in the early hours of Wednesday morning .
Meanwhile , the San Bernardino County Sheriff ’ s Department said Saturday that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death of a Black man found hanging from a tree near the Victorville City Library two weeks ago .
But the department said that the investigation into the death of Malcolm Harsch , 38 , is ongoing , according to a report in the “ There were no indications at the scene that suggested foul play ; however , the cause and manner of death are still pending , ” Sheriff ’ s Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller told the news outlet .
The Victorville Fire Department discovered Harsch ’ s body May 31 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a.m. , officials said .
When firefighters arrived at the library , they found Harsch hanging from a nearby tree .
In a statement sent to the Victor Valley News , Harsch ’ s family in Ohio said they find it hard to accept that his death was a suicide .
They said that Harsch had recent conversations with his children about seeing them soon and that he did not seem to be depressed to anyone who knew him .
“ The explanation of suicide does not seem plausible , ” the family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to die but considering the current racial tension , a Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn ’ t sit well with us right now .
“ We want justice , not comfortable excuses , ” they wrote .
Times staff writers Deborah Netburn , Matt Hamilton and Kiera Feldman contributed to this report .

Diamond Alexander, center, sister of Robert Fuller, joined demonstrators in Palmdale on Saturday to demand answers in her brother’s death.
Three Mylar balloons, tethered near the top of a thin tree, stirred in the breeze outside Palmdale City Hall on Saturday. At the base lay bouquets of flowers wrapped in plastic and more than two dozen votive candles, their flames flickering.
The tree, which stands on the edge of a 2-acre courtyard known as Poncitlán Square, is now a memorial, one an angry, frustrated but mainly heartbroken crowd of nearly 2,000 dedicated to the memory of a 24-year-old Black man found hanging from its branches early Wednesday morning.
“This is Robert Fuller Memorial Park from this day forward,” Pharaoh Mitchell of the Community Action League shouted into a microphone. “We want justice.”
The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office initially called the death a suicide. Fuller’s family and civic leaders quickly pushed back, insisting that it be investigated as a homicide and demanding an independent probe and autopsy, something the city also has requested.
VIDEO | 09:30 As suicide rate rises among Black youths, Robert Fuller’s death prompts much-needed discussion On June 10, Robert Fuller’s body was found hanging from a tree outside Palmdale City Hall. His death came in the middle of the George Floyd protests and a week after Malcolm Harsch, another Black man, was found hanging from a tree in Victorville, less than 50 miles away. Their deaths shed light on the concerning rise in suicides among Black Americans.
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“The City of Palmdale is joining the family and the community’s call for justice and we do support a full investigation into his death,” the city said in a statement, reversing a release issued Thursday in which City Manager J.J. Murphy labeled the death a suicide. Murphy’s claim was repeated Friday by Capt. Ron Shaffer of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
“This is really crazy to all of us,” Fuller’s sister Diamond Alexander said. “We want to find out the truth of what really happened. Everything that they’ve been telling us has not been right.
“To be here, staring at this tree, it don’t make no sense,” Alexander added. “My brother was not suicidal. My brother was a survivor.”
Robert Fuller, the young Black man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale this week. (Courtesy Tommie Anderson)
Fuller’s family and friends described him as a peacemaker, a street-smart man with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a bright smile who loved music, anime and video games and mostly stayed to himself. Days before he died, he attended a Black Lives Matter protest.
His body was found by a passerby at 3:39 a.m. Wednesday, a time when Fuller would never have been out, said Tommie Anderson, 21, a close friend since high school.
“For my best friend to be gone, it’s hurting me,” said Anderson, who was wearing a T-shirt depicting one of Fuller’s favorite characters from the Japanese anime TV series “Dragon Ball Z.”
Fuller was too large and too muscular for the thin tree to support his weight for long, she said. And he was too tall to hang from its lowest branches.
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“For people to say he did this, this wasn’t Robert,” Anderson said. “For him to tie himself to that tree, it’s not possible.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Saturday requested that state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra conduct an independent investigation into Fuller’s death.
Najee Ali, a community organizer and activist from South L.A., has also called for an independent investigation.
“Based on what I’ve seen, that does not add up,” he said of the suicide claim, adding that Fuller’s family is right to doubt what they’ve been told.
“Historically the Palmdale-Lancaster area has had many complaints from Black residents who feel they’ve been the victim of racism and destruction. It’s been problematic for decades,” he said. “They said their family member had no history of mental illness, is not depressed. So we have grave concerns, especially with the rise of hate crimes in recent years.”
The Antelope Valley has a substantial Black population. There have been repeated allegations of racist policies, including a U.S. Justice Department finding that officials worked to drive Black people out of public housing.
Five years ago, the Los Angeles County Housing Authority agreed to pay $2 million to victims of alleged discrimination, and some families who lost their housing assistance will have the chance to get it back.
At the same time, the Sheriff’s Department agreed to pay $700,000 and implement policies aimed at preventing racial bias. The Justice Department launched an investigation in 2011 into allegations that people of color — particularly Black people — living in federally subsidized housing in Lancaster and Palmdale were being harassed and discriminated against by sheriff’s deputies and county housing agency officials.
On Saturday, Ali led the crowd in a peaceful march from the site of Fuller’s death to the Sheriff’s Department station half a mile away. The protesters, whose ranks swelled during the short journey, filled the northbound lanes of Sierra Highway, shutting down traffic.
Once they arrived, the marchers crowded around the entrance to the building, chanting Fuller’s name and requesting a dialogue with the watch commander as a dozen officers, clad in riot gear, clustered behind tinted glass doors, which remained closed. After a half-hour wait, Lt. Derrick Ballentine came out of a side door and told Ali and the crowd that the department’s investigation into Fuller’s death was continuing and that he had no updates.
Asked if he, too, backed calls for an independent probe, Ballentine said yes. The crowd then turned around and, beneath the whirl of a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, marched back to City Hall and the tree where Fuller’s body was found.
Directly beneath the tree, a short poem was etched into the concrete seven years ago. The winning entry in a local poetry contest, it speaks of the “smart black crows” and the “rainbow” that “led us here.”
The question Fuller’s family wants answered is what led him here in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday that foul play was not suspected in the death of a Black man found hanging from a tree near the Victorville City Library two weeks ago.
But the department said that the investigation into the death of Malcolm Harsch, 38, is ongoing, according to a report in the Victor Valley News.
“There were no indications at the scene that suggested foul play; however, the cause and manner of death are still pending,” Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller told the news outlet.
The Victorville Fire Department discovered Harsch’s body May 31 after receiving a dispatch call around 7 a.m., officials said. When firefighters arrived at the library, they found Harsch hanging from a nearby tree.
In a statement sent to the Victor Valley News, Harsch’s family in Ohio said they find it hard to accept that his death was a suicide. They said that Harsch had recent conversations with his children about seeing them soon and that he did not seem to be depressed to anyone who knew him.
“The explanation of suicide does not seem plausible,” the family wrote. “There are many ways to die but considering the current racial tension, a Black man hanging himself from a tree definitely doesn’t sit well with us right now.
“We want justice, not comfortable excuses,” they wrote.
Times staff writers Deborah Netburn, Matt Hamilton and Kiera Feldman contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-06-14--They lost loved ones to police violence. George Floyd's killing has made the pain new again

For families who have lost a loved one to police violence , there are two truths most agree on : The pain never goes away , and every new fatal encounter with law enforcement makes it raw again .
As the nation and world mourn the death of George Floyd , these five Californians continue to grieve over law enforcement killings closer to home .
Their tragedies are made worse , they say , by the systemic racism that remains in the American criminal justice system and continued use of fatal force that seldom results in repercussions for the officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a balm and a necessary part of an ongoing fight .
For others , it is trauma endured so that the person gone is not forgotten .
Here , they share their stories : Back when she was young , long before two police officers shot her son in the back , Brigett McIntyre dreamed of having a baby .
Doctors had told her she couldn ’ t carry a pregnancy , so when she gave birth to her only child , Mikel , after many miscarriages , it was as much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I asked God to give me a son and he did , ” McIntyre said .
“ He was beautiful to me .
He was a delight.
” When she saw the video of George Floyd recently , “ that hurt me to my heart , ” she said .
She imagines Mikel calling for her as he bled out on the gravel edge of a highway , a torment so piercing she can ’ t take part in protests .
Some mornings , the depression and anxiety , the fear of police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ There is not a day that goes by that I don ’ t cry for my son , ” she said .
“ I can ’ t go out .
I can ’ t speak… .
I just want to lay in bed all day , close the shades and just sit and do nothing.
” In 2017 , Mikel McIntyre , then 32 , started acting strangely , unable to sleep .
A talented baseball player — he ’ d been honored by the National Assn .
of Intercollegiate Athletics while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a minor league team — he ’ d never had any health problems , but now his mother was worried .
She convinced him to travel with her from the Bay Area to a suburb of Sacramento to visit her grandmother , hoping the change would do him good .
McIntyre ’ s mental state worsened , though , and his mother called police for help .
Responding authorities declined to take McIntyre for mental health care .
Later that day , McIntyre and his mother argued over the car keys in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and a bystander called police .
Investigators said that McIntyre hit an officer in the head with a large rock and ran under a nearby freeway overpass , sparking a massive police response .
In the next minutes , official accounts say , McIntyre threw another rock that hit a police canine , then ran down the berm of the roadway .
An officer parked on the far side of the freeway , left his car and began shooting , loading a second magazine in his Glock as he advanced across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who had responded to one of the calls for mental health care , and who later said he recognized McIntyre from that earlier encounter .
A second officer , the canine handler , also fired shots , according to official investigations .
McIntyre was struck multiple times , mostly from the rear , and was pronounced dead that night .
“ He did nothing but run for his life , and he shouldn ’ t have had to run , ” his mother said .
In an unprecedented occurrence , Sacramento County ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a deadly threat when shot .
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones demanded the inspector general be fired , and the Board of Supervisors complied .
The county district attorney , Anne Marie Schubert , found the shooting justified .
More than a year after McIntyre ’ s death , Jones said that his deputies “ acted within policy .
They acted within law and they came to a successful though unfortunate resolution.
” It bothers Brigett McIntyre that few people know the circumstances of her son ’ s death , in part because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last month after a legal challenge by The Times and the Sacramento Bee .
She would like to see Jones out of office .
“ Why are we paying their salary to kill us ?
Where is the justice ?
” she asks .
“ Every mother who has lost their child to police violence , my heart goes out to them because I understand their pain .
They have taken away something that was precious to us .
He was my baby .
He was my blessing .
And they took that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an elder statesman of police reform in California , it is Cephus “ Uncle Bobby ” Johnson .
His nephew , Oscar Grant III , was shot in the back by a transit police officer in the Bay Area in 2009 .
Caught on video , it sparked uprisings and was eventually memorialized in the film “ Fruitvale Station.
” The video of Floyd “ created much , much pain , ” Johnson said , bringing home “ how sadly things haven ’ t changed.
” After Grant was shot , Johnson said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and had a “ rude awakening ” that he had been blind to the full scope of racism in the United States , in part because he was educated and economically secure .
“ I was in many arguments in those early days , adjusting my political ideology on how to get justice , ” Johnson said .
“ That ’ s what changed me , recognizing that I can ’ t think it ’ s all about me and my own personal success in this world.
” He attended every day of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer who shot Grant .
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter , claiming he mistook his gun for his Taser , and was released from prison in 2011 after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence .
Ultimately , Johnson decided that for him , the path to change was through legislation .
He has been a fixture at the state Capitol and an instrumental force in passing almost every piece of police reform legislation in the last decade , including last year ’ s changing of the standard for when police can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ necessary , ” not just “ reasonable.
” That standard is now being discussed at the national level , and Johnson hopes to soon testify before Congress about it .
He would also like to see a national database of misconduct records of every law enforcement officer , to prevent those with poor histories from moving from agency to agency .
But Johnson has also come to believe that law alone isn ’ t enough .
Along with reforming policing , Johnson spends his time talking to youth of color .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sadly watched their mamas cry , heard [ my ] voice , ask themselves the question , ‘ Does my life really matter ?
’ ” he said .
He said he understands the anger of current uprisings .
Black Americans “ have been deprived for so long from just having a piece of the so-called pie here in the United States that they are willing to go through a broken window just to have a piece of something , ” he said .
“ How did we get to that point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ streets of Los Angeles and cities around the world in recent days , Tommy Twyman mostly kept close to home .
It was her son ’ s birthday .
Also , the first anniversary of his fatal shooting by Los Angeles County sheriff ’ s deputies .
“ It was a heavy week for me , ” Twyman said .
“ I feel so drained , I just want to close my eyes and sleep.
” Her son , Ryan Twyman , 24 , was shot at more than 30 times by two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Willowbrook .
Twyman was unarmed in his car ; an open rear door hit one of the deputies while he was slowly reversing .
The Sheriff ’ s Department said Twyman was previously convicted of carrying a loaded gun and being a felon in possession of a firearm .
He was on probation at the time , and deputies had been trying to arrest him for several weeks .
Twyman ’ s parents say they believe the shooting constituted excessive force and have filed a civil suit .
“ There were a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him out of that car , ” his mother said .
Ryan Twyman left behind three sons , ages 3 , 2 and 1 .
The oldest , his father Charles said , reminds them of Ryan .
“ His little walk is the same , ” Charles Twyman said .
“ It brings tears to my eyes.
” Tommy Twyman said her son struggled to keep jobs because he had seizures .
He spent much of his time with his dogs , breeding pit bulls .
“ Every photo is of him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ He was happy to be with them.
” Officials didn ’ t respond to requests seeking comment about the case .
“ These protests have been bittersweet , ” Tommy Twyman said .
“ I see people carrying my son ’ s picture , saying his name , but it also reminds me that justice hasn ’ t been served and this has happened to so many others.
” Gabe Murphy ’ s life disintegrated when his father , Christopher Murphy , died after California Highway Patrol officers hogtied , handcuffed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 .
Once a linebacker with scholarship potential and “ a very good kid to be around , ” according to former coach Jelani Walker , the 17-year-old Gabe is now unsure if he will ever have a high school diploma .
As a sophomore , he was invited to a practice day at both USC and UCLA , he says , but “ I don ’ t get the emails from the colleges no more.
” Gabe ’ s trajectory since officers encountered his dad after a wrong-way car crash is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a freshman then , just past his first season of high school football .
The next summer , he couldn ’ t bring himself to put his pads back on .
Football had been the glue between Gabe and Christopher .
“ Whenever I was on the field , he was always there , ” Gabe said .
Walker , his coach then , said Gabe had been one of the “ vocal leaders of the team ” and a “ beast ” in games .
Eventually , Walker convinced Gabe to suit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it “ helped me get a lot of this anger out , and it helped me be closer to my dad.
” Inspired by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick , he decided to kneel during the national anthem .
“ It felt good to take a knee , ” he said .
His junior year , Murphy transferred to a school in a conservative suburb of Sacramento and said he had friction with the coach in part because of his desire to kneel , and ended up not playing that season .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the team and that its current policies allow kneeling .
He ended up being home-schooled the remainder of that year after his mother was in a car accident , but he said he mostly stayed inside , passing time with PlayStation football and a job at a mall hat store , trying to help pay bills when money was so tight they couldn ’ t buy food .
“ That was my whole junior year down , ” Gabe said .
“ I lost it .
I don ’ t get another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 160 , and when he transferred to another school for his senior year , he wasn ’ t a starter anymore .
But he decorated his cleats with his father ’ s name and had a sticker against police brutality made for his helmet .
When he saw the Floyd video , he couldn ’ t help but compare it to his father .
He is frustrated that Christopher Murphy ’ s case has not received attention .
“ I just don ’ t understand how everybody knows about [ Floyd ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
He credits the teenage girl who recorded video of the Floyd incident for bringing it to light , and ultimately for the charges the four involved officers now face .
“ That was really brave of her to stand right in front of the cop and do that , ” he said .
“ At least the people got in trouble for what happened.
” The district attorney who investigated Murphy ’ s case found the officers had acted within policy and law , and the CHP has not publicly released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Gabe is not sure if he will go back to finish school , but he dreams of ways to get back into football .
He refuses to regret where grief has taken him .
“ I was trying to find my way , and the best way for me , ” he said .
“ Maybe it wasn ’ t the best way , but it was the way I took.
” Lisa Vargas lost her son nearly two years ago , but still , she knows so little about how or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his East L.A. home one summer night for a barbecue .
Hours later , after a scuffle with sheriff ’ s deputies , he lay lifeless on a blood-stained patch of grass .
He was 21 .
His death transformed Lisa Vargas , turned her into a community activist , a part-time detective , a determined mother who spends her free time pushing to prove that deaths like her son ’ s — at the hands of law enforcement — are preventable .
According to deputies , Anthony Vargas got caught up in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Investigators do not think he was involved in the robbery but allege he ran from authorities and resisted attempts to handcuff him .
Deputies allege the young man pulled a gun from his waistband .
After a struggle , they shot him .
His mother said officials have changed their story several times .
She said her son had no criminal record and had never owned a gun .
He was active in church , loved hosting barbecues and used to take neighborhood kids fishing at the Santa Monica Pier .
One Fourth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his savings , close to $ 1,000 , to buy fireworks for his siblings , nieces and nephews .
“ They took someone who was trying to help the community and destroyed him , ” Lisa Vargas said .
“ Then they tried to slander his name and make him sound like a criminal.
” Vargas has filed a civil suit and , through an attorney , fought to collect information .
Authorities declined to comment on the case .
After her son ’ s death , Vargas bonded with other mothers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lost their sons to police killings .
The group began with about seven women and has grown to 15 as deaths have continued .
Some of the families , Vargas said , feel intimidated to speak : They struggle with limited English , their immigration status , a lack of hope .
Some fear being judged on social media .
Vargas , a leader in the group , tells them : “ It ’ s OK .
If you don ’ t want to go out there and shout your son ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for you so his name is not forgotten.
” In recent days , she ’ s followed the Floyd protests closely , hoping the greater message about police brutality is not lost in all the coverage about violence and vandalism .
She hopes this moment creates concrete changes : better police training , more transparency , more support from government officials .
“ Money can not repair what they ’ ve done to us ; therapy can not repair it ; not even convictions can compensate a life , ” Vargas said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ family .
They need to understand why the community is in an uproar .
”

Tommy Twyman poses with a portrait of her son Ryan Twyman, a 24-year-old who was fatally shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in June 2019.
For families who have lost a loved one to police violence, there are two truths most agree on: The pain never goes away, and every new fatal encounter with law enforcement makes it raw again.
As the nation and world mourn the death of George Floyd, these five Californians continue to grieve over law enforcement killings closer to home. Their tragedies are made worse, they say, by the systemic racism that remains in the American criminal justice system and continued use of fatal force that seldom results in repercussions for the officers involved.
For some, speaking out is a balm and a necessary part of an ongoing fight. For others, it is trauma endured so that the person gone is not forgotten.
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Here, they share their stories:
Brigett McIntyre, mother of Mikel McIntyre
Back when she was young, long before two police officers shot her son in the back, Brigett McIntyre dreamed of having a baby.
Doctors had told her she couldn’t carry a pregnancy, so when she gave birth to her only child, Mikel, after many miscarriages, it was as much a triumph as a joy.
“I asked God to give me a son and he did,” McIntyre said. “He was beautiful to me. He was a delight.”
Brigett McIntyre, with attorney John Burris, tears up at a 2018 news conference on the lawsuit filed over the police killing of her son, Mikel McIntyre, in 2017. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
When she saw the video of George Floyd recently, “that hurt me to my heart,” she said. She imagines Mikel calling for her as he bled out on the gravel edge of a highway, a torment so piercing she can’t take part in protests.
Some mornings, the depression and anxiety, the fear of police and the loneliness, overwhelm her.
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“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t cry for my son,” she said. “I can’t go out. I can’t speak…. I just want to lay in bed all day, close the shades and just sit and do nothing.”
In 2017, Mikel McIntyre, then 32, started acting strangely, unable to sleep. A talented baseball player — he’d been honored by the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics while playing in college and was an outfielder on a minor league team — he’d never had any health problems, but now his mother was worried. She convinced him to travel with her from the Bay Area to a suburb of Sacramento to visit her grandmother, hoping the change would do him good.
McIntyre’s mental state worsened, though, and his mother called police for help. Responding authorities declined to take McIntyre for mental health care.
Later that day, McIntyre and his mother argued over the car keys in the parking lot of a shopping mall, and a bystander called police.
Investigators said that McIntyre hit an officer in the head with a large rock and ran under a nearby freeway overpass, sparking a massive police response. In the next minutes, official accounts say, McIntyre threw another rock that hit a police canine, then ran down the berm of the roadway.
An officer parked on the far side of the freeway, left his car and began shooting, loading a second magazine in his Glock as he advanced across the lanes. It was the same officer who had responded to one of the calls for mental health care, and who later said he recognized McIntyre from that earlier encounter. A second officer, the canine handler, also fired shots, according to official investigations.
McIntyre was struck multiple times, mostly from the rear, and was pronounced dead that night.
“He did nothing but run for his life, and he shouldn’t have had to run,” his mother said.
VIDEO | 01:43 Released video in shooting of Mikel McIntyre These videos are from the scene of the fatal police shooting of Mikel McIntyre. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones refused to release the footage until last month, after a legal challenge by The Times and the Sacramento Bee.
In an unprecedented occurrence, Sacramento County’s inspector general questioned whether McIntyre posed a deadly threat when shot. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones demanded the inspector general be fired, and the Board of Supervisors complied.
The county district attorney, Anne Marie Schubert, found the shooting justified. More than a year after McIntyre’s death, Jones said that his deputies “acted within policy. They acted within law and they came to a successful though unfortunate resolution.”
A civil case was settled recently for $1.75 million.
It bothers Brigett McIntyre that few people know the circumstances of her son’s death, in part because Jones refused to release the video until last month after a legal challenge by The Times and the Sacramento Bee. She would like to see Jones out of office.
“Why are we paying their salary to kill us? Where is the justice?” she asks. “Every mother who has lost their child to police violence, my heart goes out to them because I understand their pain. They have taken away something that was precious to us. He was my baby. He was my blessing. And they took that for no reason.”
Cephus Johnson, uncle of Oscar Grant III
Cephus Johnson has advocated police reform legislation since his nephew Oscar Grant III was killed by a Bay Area transit officer in 2009. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)
If there is an elder statesman of police reform in California, it is Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson.
His nephew, Oscar Grant III, was shot in the back by a transit police officer in the Bay Area in 2009. Caught on video, it sparked uprisings and was eventually memorialized in the film “Fruitvale Station.”
The video of Floyd “created much, much pain,” Johnson said, bringing home “how sadly things haven’t changed.”
After Grant was shot, Johnson said, he spent the first year angry and had a “rude awakening” that he had been blind to the full scope of racism in the United States, in part because he was educated and economically secure.
“I was in many arguments in those early days, adjusting my political ideology on how to get justice,” Johnson said. “That’s what changed me, recognizing that I can’t think it’s all about me and my own personal success in this world.”
He attended every day of the trial of Johannes Mehserle, the officer who shot Grant. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, claiming he mistook his gun for his Taser, and was released from prison in 2011 after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence.
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Ultimately, Johnson decided that for him, the path to change was through legislation. He has been a fixture at the state Capitol and an instrumental force in passing almost every piece of police reform legislation in the last decade, including last year’s changing of the standard for when police can use deadly force to when it is “necessary,” not just “reasonable.”
That standard is now being discussed at the national level, and Johnson hopes to soon testify before Congress about it. He would also like to see a national database of misconduct records of every law enforcement officer, to prevent those with poor histories from moving from agency to agency.
But Johnson has also come to believe that law alone isn’t enough. Along with reforming policing, Johnson spends his time talking to youth of color.
“They are the ones that grew up and sadly watched their mamas cry, heard [my] voice, ask themselves the question, ‘Does my life really matter?’” he said.
He said he understands the anger of current uprisings. Black Americans “have been deprived for so long from just having a piece of the so-called pie here in the United States that they are willing to go through a broken window just to have a piece of something,” he said. “How did we get to that point?”
Tommy Twyman, mother of Ryan Twyman
Tommy, left, and Charles Twyman, the parents of Ryan Twyman, a 24-year-old who was shot to death by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in June 2019. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
While thousands spilled into the streets of Los Angeles and cities around the world in recent days, Tommy Twyman mostly kept close to home.
It was her son’s birthday. Also, the first anniversary of his fatal shooting by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.
“It was a heavy week for me,” Twyman said. “I feel so drained, I just want to close my eyes and sleep.”
Her son, Ryan Twyman, 24, was shot at more than 30 times by two deputies last June at an apartment complex in Willowbrook. Twyman was unarmed in his car; an open rear door hit one of the deputies while he was slowly reversing.
The Sheriff’s Department said Twyman was previously convicted of carrying a loaded gun and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was on probation at the time, and deputies had been trying to arrest him for several weeks. Twyman’s parents say they believe the shooting constituted excessive force and have filed a civil suit.
“There were a million different ways they could have taken him out of that car,” his mother said.
Ryan Twyman left behind three sons, ages 3, 2 and 1. The oldest, his father Charles said, reminds them of Ryan.
“His little walk is the same,” Charles Twyman said. “It brings tears to my eyes.”
Tommy Twyman said her son struggled to keep jobs because he had seizures. He spent much of his time with his dogs, breeding pit bulls.
“Every photo is of him holding a dog,” she said. “He was happy to be with them.”
Officials didn’t respond to requests seeking comment about the case.
“These protests have been bittersweet,” Tommy Twyman said. “I see people carrying my son’s picture, saying his name, but it also reminds me that justice hasn’t been served and this has happened to so many others.”
Gabe Murphy, son of Christopher Murphy
Gabe Murphy, once a promising high school football player, had his life thrown off course when his father died after being hogtied, handcuffed and shocked with a Taser by CHP officers in 2016. (Anita Chabria / Los Angeles Times)
Gabe Murphy’s life disintegrated when his father, Christopher Murphy, died after California Highway Patrol officers hogtied, handcuffed and shocked him with a Taser in 2016.
Once a linebacker with scholarship potential and “a very good kid to be around,” according to former coach Jelani Walker, the 17-year-old Gabe is now unsure if he will ever have a high school diploma. As a sophomore, he was invited to a practice day at both USC and UCLA, he says, but “I don’t get the emails from the colleges no more.”
Gabe’s trajectory since officers encountered his dad after a wrong-way car crash is a tale of generational trauma. He was a freshman then, just past his first season of high school football. The next summer, he couldn’t bring himself to put his pads back on. Football had been the glue between Gabe and Christopher.
“Whenever I was on the field, he was always there,” Gabe said.
Walker, his coach then, said Gabe had been one of the “vocal leaders of the team” and a “beast” in games. Eventually, Walker convinced Gabe to suit up again, and the teenager said it “helped me get a lot of this anger out, and it helped me be closer to my dad.”
Inspired by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, he decided to kneel during the national anthem. “It felt good to take a knee,” he said.
His junior year, Murphy transferred to a school in a conservative suburb of Sacramento and said he had friction with the coach in part because of his desire to kneel, and ended up not playing that season. The school district said that he was never on the team and that its current policies allow kneeling.
He ended up being home-schooled the remainder of that year after his mother was in a car accident, but he said he mostly stayed inside, passing time with PlayStation football and a job at a mall hat store, trying to help pay bills when money was so tight they couldn’t buy food.
“That was my whole junior year down,” Gabe said. “I lost it. I don’t get another chance.”
He dropped from 215 pounds to 160, and when he transferred to another school for his senior year, he wasn’t a starter anymore. But he decorated his cleats with his father’s name and had a sticker against police brutality made for his helmet.
When he saw the Floyd video, he couldn’t help but compare it to his father. He is frustrated that Christopher Murphy’s case has not received attention. “I just don’t understand how everybody knows about [Floyd] and not my dad,” he said.
He credits the teenage girl who recorded video of the Floyd incident for bringing it to light, and ultimately for the charges the four involved officers now face.
“That was really brave of her to stand right in front of the cop and do that,” he said. “At least the people got in trouble for what happened.”
The district attorney who investigated Murphy’s case found the officers had acted within policy and law, and the CHP has not publicly released the video.
With the coronavirus closings, Gabe is not sure if he will go back to finish school, but he dreams of ways to get back into football. He refuses to regret where grief has taken him.
“I was trying to find my way, and the best way for me,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t the best way, but it was the way I took.”
Lisa Vargas, mother of Anthony Vargas
Lisa Vargas, whose 21-year-old son, Anthony Vargas, was shot and killed by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies in 2018, has become a community activist against police violence since her son’s death. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Lisa Vargas lost her son nearly two years ago, but still, she knows so little about how or why he died.
Anthony Vargas left his East L.A. home one summer night for a barbecue. Hours later, after a scuffle with sheriff’s deputies, he lay lifeless on a blood-stained patch of grass. He was 21.
His death transformed Lisa Vargas, turned her into a community activist, a part-time detective, a determined mother who spends her free time pushing to prove that deaths like her son’s — at the hands of law enforcement — are preventable.
According to deputies, Anthony Vargas got caught up in a search for three robbery suspects. Investigators do not think he was involved in the robbery but allege he ran from authorities and resisted attempts to handcuff him.
Deputies allege the young man pulled a gun from his waistband. After a struggle, they shot him.
His mother said officials have changed their story several times. She said her son had no criminal record and had never owned a gun.
He was active in church, loved hosting barbecues and used to take neighborhood kids fishing at the Santa Monica Pier. One Fourth of July, he spent a portion of his savings, close to $1,000, to buy fireworks for his siblings, nieces and nephews.
“They took someone who was trying to help the community and destroyed him,” Lisa Vargas said. “Then they tried to slander his name and make him sound like a criminal.”
Vargas has filed a civil suit and, through an attorney, fought to collect information. Authorities declined to comment on the case.
After her son’s death, Vargas bonded with other mothers in the East L.A. area who have lost their sons to police killings. The group began with about seven women and has grown to 15 as deaths have continued. Some of the families, Vargas said, feel intimidated to speak: They struggle with limited English, their immigration status, a lack of hope. Some fear being judged on social media.
Vargas, a leader in the group, tells them: “It’s OK. If you don’t want to go out there and shout your son’s name, we’ll do it for you so his name is not forgotten.”
In recent days, she’s followed the Floyd protests closely, hoping the greater message about police brutality is not lost in all the coverage about violence and vandalism. She hopes this moment creates concrete changes: better police training, more transparency, more support from government officials.
“Money cannot repair what they’ve done to us; therapy cannot repair it; not even convictions can compensate a life,” Vargas said. “They took our futures, our family. They need to understand why the community is in an uproar.”


latimes--2020-06-14--Airline passengers brought COVID-19 into LAX in March — and no one warned the public

When American Airlines flight 341 to Los Angeles lifted off the tarmac at New York ’ s John F. Kennedy Airport on a cloudy Thursday in mid-March , much of the country was already on coronavirus lockdown .
The flight was far from full , but the 49 passengers and eight crew shared restrooms , cabin air and a narrow aisle for the six-hour trip .
Though no one knew it then , a man in first class , a retired Manhattan surgeon , was infected with the virus .
The day after the flight , he was rushed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high fever and phlegmy cough .
The virus spread quickly among those he had come in contact with in the hours after leaving LAX , including at a Westside assisted living facility where a 32-year-old nurse and a dozen others later died .
L.A. was still in an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic when the surgeon ’ s flight touched down , with fewer than 250 confirmed cases .
Local health officials regularly assured the public then that the county was investigating each case and engaging in aggressive contact tracing to control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these pledges , no one in public health informed any of the passengers and crew who had flown cross country with the surgeon that they were at risk .
The airline only recently learned of the case from The Times .
It was one of two long-haul flights into LAX in March identified by The Times in which public health officials failed to alert passengers and crew who had flown with a person who later tested COVID-positive .
In the other , a March 8 flight from Seoul , the stricken passenger reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aircraft and went into cardiac arrest the morning after she landed , becoming the first confirmed COVID-19 death in L.A. County .
Without instructions to self-quarantine or seek testing , more than 200 people on these flights returned to their families and communities ignorant of their exposure , potentially seeding new outbreaks .
“ Christ , ” said Dr. George Rutherford , formerly the state epidemiologist for California , upon hearing that passengers and crew weren ’ t contacted .
“ That ’ s a problem.
” The mishandling of these cases raises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carried out contact tracing thus far and whether they are prepared for an expected uptick in cases as California reopens .
The state currently has more than 140,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases .
Tracing a sick passenger can be a more straightforward process than investigating infected grocery clerks or healthcare workers who may have come into contact with hundreds of strangers .
Airlines maintain detailed lists of passengers , seat assignments , and contact information , and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an established system to help local health departments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near the infected person .
A CDC spokesman said its records indicated that in the LAX cases , L.A. public health officials never alerted the agency about the flights so that contact tracing could be initiated .
“ Any delay in contacting exposed individuals will increase the likelihood of disease spread , ” a CDC spokesman said .
The county health department said that officials informed a CDC office at LAX about the South Korean flight .
In the case of the JFK flight , its contact tracers closed the case after they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an interview .
The department currently has more than 1,500 contact tracers and plans to add more if cases rise .
“ In March , whenever Public Health was aware that an individual traveled on an airline while potentially infectious with COVID-19 , it notified the CDC , ” the department said in a statement to The Times .
Asiana Airlines Flight 202 departed Seoul for LAX on March 8 carrying 154 passengers , including a 68-year-old from Florida and her husband .
The woman was returning from a visit to her native @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she had complained that she didn ’ t feel well and had a fever .
By the time she boarded a connecting flight in South Korea , it was apparently gone because she passed through temperature screening at the airport , according to her daughter , who asked that neither her mother ’ s name nor hers be used for fear of harassment .
After the nearly 11-hour flight , the woman went to a relative ’ s house in Walnut .
The next morning , she stopped breathing .
She died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death in L.A. County .
Almost immediately , a public health department representative contacted her daughter for help reconstructing her mother ’ s final interactions .
At the time of her death , there were just 17 known cases in the county .
“ It felt like there was this urgency , ” her daughter recalled .
“ I was on the phone every day with them for a week.
” The health department tracked down the man who picked up the woman and her husband from LAX , a relative ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later told the driver , whose name she didn ’ t know , died from COVID-19 .
Public health officials declined to provide details about their investigation , citing patient privacy .
A contact tracer asked for the couple ’ s flight number and even requested her seat assignment .
But no health authorities contacted Asiana Airlines to get the flight manifest or the CDC ’ s Korean counterpart , spokespeople for both said .
Stateside , the agencies responsible each seemed to blame the other .
A CDC spokesman said , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigation database , and CDC did not receive inquiries about this flight.
” The county health department maintained officials “ notified CDC Quarantine Station at LAX as per protocol for potential follow-up.
” The Times asked for documentation of the notification .
The county did not provide any .
Months after the Florida woman ’ s death , her daughter still thinks about the other passengers on the flight from Seoul .
She asked her father recently if her mother had worn a mask .
Most of the time , he said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people she could have infected .
You feel all this guilt , ” she said .
Because infection risk is a function of closeness and length of exposure , air travelers are susceptible to contracting COVID-19 from a fellow passenger , said epidemiologist David Engelthaler .
“ Sitting in a closed environment for an extended period of time just increases the overall exposure , ” said Engelthaler , the head of the infectious disease arm of Arizona ’ s Translational Genomics Research Institute .
When a passenger travels while infected with the novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to notify those seated in a six-foot radius .
Depending on the configuration , that can mean passengers in the same row along with two rows in front and two rows behind .
Yet some scientists have criticized this standard as inadequate and potentially dangerous .
One 2016 study found that for both SARS and influenza , approximately half of those who contracted the viruses were seated more than two rows away from the infected person .
On a three-hour flight from Hong Kong to Beijing in 2003 , for example , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and eighteen other passengers spread throughout the plane .
In the case of the LAX flights , “ I would notify everyone on the flight that they had been exposed , ” said Rutherford , a professor of epidemiology at UCSF .
“ We would encourage them to get tested , and we would do an investigation of the people who were seated most closely ... and make sure they got tested.
” Other jurisdictions have embraced even wider warnings .
When a passenger on a two-hour flight to Rochester , N.Y. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mid-March , public health officials there made a public announcement that everyone aboard and anyone in the airport at the time should be on the lookout for symptoms .
Early in the pandemic , public health officials were tightly focused on airports as they worked to contain the virus .
The first known case in L.A. was detected Jan. 22 at LAX .
A man from Wuhan , China , connecting through the airport with his family on the way home from a Mexican vacation told a Customs and Border Patrol agent he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a local hospital and diagnosed with the virus .
Public health officials notified passengers seated within two rows of the infected person and instructed the airline to contact the crew .
The man from Wuhan eventually recovered .
Since the pandemic began in the U.S. , the CDC has facilitated 392 contact tracing investigations of air travelers .
The agency declined to provide further details , and it was not clear if there were other unreported flights in addition to the ones identified by The Times .
When the surgeon ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19 , the number of cases in L.A. County had topped 200 , but the county was still telling the public it was able to do adequate tracing .
“ All confirmed cases are being isolated and close contacts are quarantined , ” the county said in a press release that day .
The 69-year-old surgeon was flying to L.A. so he could move into the Silverado Beverly Place , a dementia-care residence on the edge of the Fairfax district .
His relatives did not return calls seeking comment .
The surgeon was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ February , and The Times is not naming him because his mental competency is unclear .
Just prior to the flight , he had been discharged from a New York City hospital , according to correspondence from the Silverado and interviews .
At the time , coronavirus was spreading rapidly in the city , including in medical facilities .
There was little attempt to quarantine him from other residents once he got to the Silverado from the airport , according to three employees who recalled him eating dinner in the company of other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nurse assigned to welcome him , Brittany Bruner-Ringo , later told her mother , sister and a colleague that the man had a fever and a cough when he arrived .
The Silverado has denied that and said medical records prepared by the nurse show he had no symptoms .
By the next day , however , the doctor was clearly unwell with a temperature of 101.9 and a “ productive cough , ” according to medical records .
One employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him he needed to stay in his room because of the pandemic , he replied , “ Yes , I know the situation .
And I am really hot and I have it , and I need to go to the hospital.
” Taken to Cedars-Sinai , he tested positive for COVID-19 .
Passengers and crew on the flight from New York were obvious targets for contact tracing , but no one attempted to get in touch with them .
The county health department said it didn ’ t learn of the surgeon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and at that point , “ the contact information provided for the individual was incomplete and the investigator was not able to conduct an interview.
“ The county formally closed the case after 14 days .
It was unclear why the contact tracers would not have turned to the Silverado for information about the surgeon .
The facility filed a report with the county within hours of his positive test , providing the sick man ’ s name , explaining his recent arrival and giving contact information for an administrator , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Receiving no response , the administrator reached out again three days later and was told “ we did not need to do anything further at this time , ” according to a Silverado spokesman .
The surgeon recovered , but the Silverado saw an outbreak .
To date , 90 residents and staff have come down with the virus and 13 died , including Bruner-Ringo .
A county spokesman said there is an “ ongoing investigation ” into the outbreak .
Times staff writer Victoria Kim in Seoul contributed to this report .

When American Airlines flight 341 to Los Angeles lifted off the tarmac at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on a cloudy Thursday in mid-March, much of the country was already on coronavirus lockdown. The flight was far from full, but the 49 passengers and eight crew shared restrooms, cabin air and a narrow aisle for the six-hour trip.
Though no one knew it then, a man in first class, a retired Manhattan surgeon, was infected with the virus. The day after the flight, he was rushed by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with a high fever and phlegmy cough. The virus spread quickly among those he had come in contact with in the hours after leaving LAX, including at a Westside assisted living facility where a 32-year-old nurse and a dozen others later died.
L.A. was still in an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic when the surgeon’s flight touched down, with fewer than 250 confirmed cases. Local health officials regularly assured the public then that the county was investigating each case and engaging in aggressive contact tracing to control the spread of the virus.
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Despite these pledges, no one in public health informed any of the passengers and crew who had flown cross country with the surgeon that they were at risk. The airline only recently learned of the case from The Times.
It was one of two long-haul flights into LAX in March identified by The Times in which public health officials failed to alert passengers and crew who had flown with a person who later tested COVID-positive. In the other, a March 8 flight from Seoul, the stricken passenger reported running a fever days before boarding the aircraft and went into cardiac arrest the morning after she landed, becoming the first confirmed COVID-19 death in L.A. County.
Without instructions to self-quarantine or seek testing, more than 200 people on these flights returned to their families and communities ignorant of their exposure, potentially seeding new outbreaks.
“Christ,” said Dr. George Rutherford, formerly the state epidemiologist for California, upon hearing that passengers and crew weren’t contacted. “That’s a problem.”
The mishandling of these cases raises questions about how well public officials have carried out contact tracing thus far and whether they are prepared for an expected uptick in cases as California reopens. The state currently has more than 140,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Tracing a sick passenger can be a more straightforward process than investigating infected grocery clerks or healthcare workers who may have come into contact with hundreds of strangers. Airlines maintain detailed lists of passengers, seat assignments, and contact information, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an established system to help local health departments obtain the information and notify passengers seated near the infected person.
A CDC spokesman said its records indicated that in the LAX cases, L.A. public health officials never alerted the agency about the flights so that contact tracing could be initiated.
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“Any delay in contacting exposed individuals will increase the likelihood of disease spread,” a CDC spokesman said.
The county health department said that officials informed a CDC office at LAX about the South Korean flight. In the case of the JFK flight, its contact tracers closed the case after they were unable to reach the surgeon for an interview. The department currently has more than 1,500 contact tracers and plans to add more if cases rise.
“In March, whenever Public Health was aware that an individual traveled on an airline while potentially infectious with COVID-19, it notified the CDC,” the department said in a statement to The Times.
Asiana Airlines Flight 202 departed Seoul for LAX on March 8 carrying 154 passengers, including a 68-year-old from Florida and her husband.
The woman was returning from a visit to her native Philippines and in her last days there, she had complained that she didn’t feel well and had a fever. By the time she boarded a connecting flight in South Korea, it was apparently gone because she passed through temperature screening at the airport, according to her daughter, who asked that neither her mother’s name nor hers be used for fear of harassment.
After the nearly 11-hour flight, the woman went to a relative’s house in Walnut. The next morning, she stopped breathing. She died March 10, the first confirmed COVID-19 death in L.A. County. Almost immediately, a public health department representative contacted her daughter for help reconstructing her mother’s final interactions. At the time of her death, there were just 17 known cases in the county.
“It felt like there was this urgency,” her daughter recalled. “I was on the phone every day with them for a week.”
The health department tracked down the man who picked up the woman and her husband from LAX, a relative’s acquaintance. Her daughter said she was later told the driver, whose name she didn’t know, died from COVID-19. Public health officials declined to provide details about their investigation, citing patient privacy.
A contact tracer asked for the couple’s flight number and even requested her seat assignment. But no health authorities contacted Asiana Airlines to get the flight manifest or the CDC’s Korean counterpart, spokespeople for both said.
Stateside, the agencies responsible each seemed to blame the other. A CDC spokesman said, “This flight is not in our contact investigation database, and CDC did not receive inquiries about this flight.” The county health department maintained officials “notified CDC Quarantine Station at LAX as per protocol for potential follow-up.” The Times asked for documentation of the notification. The county did not provide any.
Months after the Florida woman’s death, her daughter still thinks about the other passengers on the flight from Seoul. She asked her father recently if her mother had worn a mask. Most of the time, he said.
“I was just worried about other people she could have infected. You feel all this guilt,” she said.
Because infection risk is a function of closeness and length of exposure, air travelers are susceptible to contracting COVID-19 from a fellow passenger, said epidemiologist David Engelthaler.
“Sitting in a closed environment for an extended period of time just increases the overall exposure,” said Engelthaler, the head of the infectious disease arm of Arizona’s Translational Genomics Research Institute.
When a passenger travels while infected with the novel coronavirus, CDC’s protocol is to notify those seated in a six-foot radius. Depending on the configuration, that can mean passengers in the same row along with two rows in front and two rows behind.
Yet some scientists have criticized this standard as inadequate and potentially dangerous. One 2016 study found that for both SARS and influenza, approximately half of those who contracted the viruses were seated more than two rows away from the infected person. On a three-hour flight from Hong Kong to Beijing in 2003, for example, a passenger with SARS infected two flight attendants and eighteen other passengers spread throughout the plane.
In the case of the LAX flights, “I would notify everyone on the flight that they had been exposed,” said Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at UCSF. “We would encourage them to get tested, and we would do an investigation of the people who were seated most closely ... and make sure they got tested.”
Other jurisdictions have embraced even wider warnings. When a passenger on a two-hour flight to Rochester, N.Y., from JFK came down with COVID-19 in mid-March, public health officials there made a public announcement that everyone aboard and anyone in the airport at the time should be on the lookout for symptoms.
Early in the pandemic, public health officials were tightly focused on airports as they worked to contain the virus. The first known case in L.A. was detected Jan. 22 at LAX. A man from Wuhan, China, connecting through the airport with his family on the way home from a Mexican vacation told a Customs and Border Patrol agent he needed medical treatment and was later taken to a local hospital and diagnosed with the virus. Public health officials notified passengers seated within two rows of the infected person and instructed the airline to contact the crew. The man from Wuhan eventually recovered.
Since the pandemic began in the U.S., the CDC has facilitated 392 contact tracing investigations of air travelers. The agency declined to provide further details, and it was not clear if there were other unreported flights in addition to the ones identified by The Times.
When the surgeon’s flight landed on the evening of March 19, the number of cases in L.A. County had topped 200, but the county was still telling the public it was able to do adequate tracing.
“All confirmed cases are being isolated and close contacts are quarantined,” the county said in a press release that day.
The 69-year-old surgeon was flying to L.A. so he could move into the Silverado Beverly Place, a dementia-care residence on the edge of the Fairfax district. His relatives did not return calls seeking comment. The surgeon was the subject of a guardianship proceeding in February, and The Times is not naming him because his mental competency is unclear.
Just prior to the flight, he had been discharged from a New York City hospital, according to correspondence from the Silverado and interviews. At the time, coronavirus was spreading rapidly in the city, including in medical facilities.
There was little attempt to quarantine him from other residents once he got to the Silverado from the airport, according to three employees who recalled him eating dinner in the company of other residents shortly after his arrival.
The nurse assigned to welcome him, Brittany Bruner-Ringo, later told her mother, sister and a colleague that the man had a fever and a cough when he arrived. The Silverado has denied that and said medical records prepared by the nurse show he had no symptoms.
By the next day, however, the doctor was clearly unwell with a temperature of 101.9 and a “productive cough,” according to medical records. One employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly said when she told him he needed to stay in his room because of the pandemic, he replied, “Yes, I know the situation. And I am really hot and I have it, and I need to go to the hospital.”
Taken to Cedars-Sinai, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Passengers and crew on the flight from New York were obvious targets for contact tracing, but no one attempted to get in touch with them. The county health department said it didn’t learn of the surgeon’s positive test for 11 days, and at that point, “the contact information provided for the individual was incomplete and the investigator was not able to conduct an interview.“ The county formally closed the case after 14 days.
It was unclear why the contact tracers would not have turned to the Silverado for information about the surgeon. The facility filed a report with the county within hours of his positive test, providing the sick man’s name, explaining his recent arrival and giving contact information for an administrator, according to correspondence provided by the Silverado. Receiving no response, the administrator reached out again three days later and was told “we did not need to do anything further at this time,” according to a Silverado spokesman.
The surgeon recovered, but the Silverado saw an outbreak. To date, 90 residents and staff have come down with the virus and 13 died, including Bruner-Ringo. A county spokesman said there is an “ongoing investigation” into the outbreak.
Times staff writer Victoria Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-06-14--LAPD violence against George Floyd protests erodes a decade of reforms

May Day , 2007 , began peacefully in Los Angeles .
It ended as another dark , violent chapter for the city ’ s Police Department .
As annual immigrant rights demonstrations wound down , marchers gathered at MacArthur Park .
When a small group of agitators threw bottles and other objects , disorganized police responded with shocking force on the entire crowd .
Officers in riot gear swept through the park , firing hard projectiles and beating people .
The ruthlessness — televised live — left nearly 250 protesters injured .
The city was outraged .
For a department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rodney King beating , the moment marked a giant step backward .
The city ended up paying out more than $ 30 million to those hurt and once again agreed to changes designed to prevent such violence from happening again .
“ What happened was wrong , ” said the mayor at the time , Antonio Villaraigosa .
“ The inadequate planning , the breakdown in command and control , misuse of tactics created a cascading chain of escalating misjudgments.
” In the years that followed , as large demonstrations and marches went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s reputation for brutality gave way to imperfect but undeniable progress .
Allegations of heavy-handed police tactics at protests still sometimes arose , but the department appeared to have put itself on a new path .
Then came the killing last month of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis and the mass protests that erupted in its wake .
In Los Angeles , videos and accounts of officers again beating back seemingly peaceful protesters with batons and injuring others with “ less lethal ” projectiles returned the city back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mayor Eric Garcetti , who was a member of the City Council when the MacArthur Park debacle occurred , and police leaders on the defensive as they face hard questions about whether the LAPD should have been better prepared and could have responded in a way that eased tensions instead of ratcheting them up .
It remains to be seen whether the heavy-handed response the LAPD brought to the first days of the rolling protests was an anomaly or a reflection of a police force that has strayed from its course .
Top @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to its hands-off approach , but were forced to respond aggressively when large numbers of violent protesters targeted them with bottles and other projectiles .
Longtime critics of the department , however , see the protests as a major setback for the department .
“ Will we ever reach a point where we consistently move forward and not a few steps forward and then 10 steps back ?
” said Carol Sobel , a longtime civil rights attorney who has won several large lawsuits against the LAPD over its handling of protests and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ And this is at least 10 steps back , if not more.
” For decades , hardline tactics were the norm for the LAPD when officers and protesters met in the streets .
The 1960s and 1970s are full of episodes in which a police force that proudly modeled itself after military organizations left people bloodied and dead .
Low points include the police response to the Watts riots in 1965 , the violent dispersal of an antiwar protest in Century City against President Lyndon Johnson , and a 1987 protest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which Sobel recalled officers on horseback and on foot left demonstrators with head injuries and broken eye sockets .
The police mishandling of the 1992 acquittal of LAPD officers charged in the Rodney King beating was perhaps the darkest moment of the department ’ s recent past .
Unprepared and poorly trained officers were quickly overwhelmed by the uprising , which ended with thousands injured and 53 people dead , including 10 killed by police .
Soldiers were sent in to end the upheaval .
After police forcibly broke up protests outside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pepper spray and rubber bullets , the city ended up paying more than $ 4 million in legal settlements , and the department agreed to a sweeping series of restrictions on how officers deal with large crowds .
The deal appeared to lead to improvements as department officials worked more closely with march organizers to avoid clashes .
The strategy was on display in 2006 when hundreds of thousands of marchers descended on downtown L.A. for a pro-immigration rally .
But the goodwill was short-lived .
At the same immigration demonstrations the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , rattled by a group of agitators , marched through MacArthur Park in L.A. ’ s Westlake neighborhood , injuring nearly 250 protesters and journalists with hard foam bullets and batons .
LAPD Chief Bill Bratton , who had spent years trying to build and repair ties between the department and minority communities , was livid .
On his order , aides produced a scathing report that found commanders had failed to adequately plan for the rally , issued confusing and sometimes contradictory orders and failed to control officers .
And the officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapons in ways that violated LAPD policies and basic training guidelines .
The report and a legal settlement that Sobel helped negotiate , which included court-mandated reforms to how the department policed crowds , marked a turning point .
Nearly all of the more than 9,000 officers in the department were retrained in crowd-control tactics .
And , in advance of more demonstrations , hundreds of officers were put through role-playing exercises to practice quickly extracting violent protesters from an otherwise peaceful group .
“ Is everyone clear on chain of command ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in charge of the retraining effort , asked at one training session in 2008 .
“ Everyone clear on who is in charge of what ?
” In the years that followed , LAPD avoided major debacles .
The chief at the time , Charlie Beck , won praise for his generally patient approach to sometimes tense situations , including in 2011 when he waited weeks before breaking up an encampment of protesters on the City Hall lawn and did it without any force being needed .
Sobel , who is involved in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back on that period with mixed feelings .
“ Absolutely , there was progress , ” she said , “ but there were also opportunities lost.
” Those missed chances , she said , revolved around LAPD ’ s refusal to quickly cite and release people detained for violating an order to disperse or some other nonviolent violation .
Instead , the LAPD has persisted in arresting protesters , often holding them for hours .
For example , after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson , Mo.
, in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uses of force , but arrested more than 320 people , considerably more than in other cities .
The trend continued during protests over President Trump ’ s 2016 election and inauguration .
Sobel said she has been trying for years without success to get department leaders to see that the practice infringes on people ’ s constitutional right to protest .
Before Trump ’ s inauguration , the current LAPD chief , Michel Moore , acknowledged the heavy reliance on arrests and defended the practice , saying it is a necessary response @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t shift from this stance when protests over the Floyd killing and police killings of Black people erupted late last month .
Nearly 2,500 people have been arrested for violating curfews or failing to disperse .
Those arrested recounted how police surrounded and arrested them with no notice , sometimes before curfews began , and cuffed their hands with plastic zip ties that dug into their skin .
Many were bused to a UCLA sports stadium and other processing sites where they were held in custody for up to 12 hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the early-morning hours .
Beyond the arrests of peaceful protesters , LAPD officers brought a level of force to the first days of the protests that had not been seen in Los Angeles since the MacArthur Park melee in 2007 .
In one widely viewed video , officers are seen using batons to forcibly strike marchers who appear to pose no threat .
Others show officers firing foam projectiles at protesters .
Dozens of people have filed complaints with the LAPD over officers ’ behavior during the protests , with at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force .
LAPD Assistant Chief Robert Arcos said in an interview that commanders in the field and senior officials directing the department ’ s response went into the protests wanting to disperse crowds methodically and without force , but had to escalate their response when they encountered people throwing hard objects at officers , burning cars and stealing from businesses .
“ We wanted to help facilitate [ the protests ] and wanted to help get them to where they want to go .
We didn ’ t want to get in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There was a number of groups in there that had nothing but the intent to protest peacefully ...
But they were embedded with other folks who had different ideas .
Their whole intent was to create chaos .
Then really we have to switch very quickly from crowd management to crowd control.
” Protesters have challenged that view , saying police instigated crowds by amassing in riot gear and penning people into confined areas with no escape .
The LAPD ’ s methods eased noticeably as marches went on throughout the week .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands of protesters filled Hollywood Boulevard without a cop in sight .
Police staged blocks away , but largely left protesters alone .
Things remained largely peaceful .
Critics say police changed their tactics after coming under scrutiny for their initial response .
Arcos and Moore disagreed , saying the shift was possible because protests grew more peaceful and people intent on doing causing problems stopped showing up in large numbers .
As she starts in on yet another legal battle to once again extract settlement payments and reforms from the LAPD , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plans to change tack .
In the past , agreements hammered out in court included expiration dates .
Whatever comes out of this debacle , she said , should be permanent .
“ We ’ ve got to get away from this cycle , this history of backsliding over and over again over 30 years , ” Sobel said .
“ Maybe it ’ s not as bad as it once was , but it ’ s still not good .
”

A Los Angeles police officer shoves a KCBS cameraman out of the way during a melee at a MacArthur Park protest on May Day, 2007.
May Day, 2007, began peacefully in Los Angeles. It ended as another dark, violent chapter for the city’s Police Department.
As annual immigrant rights demonstrations wound down, marchers gathered at MacArthur Park. When a small group of agitators threw bottles and other objects, disorganized police responded with shocking force on the entire crowd. Officers in riot gear swept through the park, firing hard projectiles and beating people. The ruthlessness — televised live — left nearly 250 protesters injured. The city was outraged.
For a department still trying to reform itself after the Rodney King beating, the moment marked a giant step backward. The city ended up paying out more than $30 million to those hurt and once again agreed to changes designed to prevent such violence from happening again.
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“What happened was wrong,” said the mayor at the time, Antonio Villaraigosa. “The inadequate planning, the breakdown in command and control, misuse of tactics created a cascading chain of escalating misjudgments.”
In the years that followed, as large demonstrations and marches went off without major upheaval, the LAPD’s reputation for brutality gave way to imperfect but undeniable progress. Allegations of heavy-handed police tactics at protests still sometimes arose, but the department appeared to have put itself on a new path.
Then came the killing last month of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis and the mass protests that erupted in its wake. In Los Angeles, videos and accounts of officers again beating back seemingly peaceful protesters with batons and injuring others with “less lethal” projectiles returned the city back to 2007.
The police response has left Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was a member of the City Council when the MacArthur Park debacle occurred, and police leaders on the defensive as they face hard questions about whether the LAPD should have been better prepared and could have responded in a way that eased tensions instead of ratcheting them up.
It remains to be seen whether the heavy-handed response the LAPD brought to the first days of the rolling protests was an anomaly or a reflection of a police force that has strayed from its course.
Top LAPD officials say they wanted to stick to its hands-off approach, but were forced to respond aggressively when large numbers of violent protesters targeted them with bottles and other projectiles.
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Longtime critics of the department, however, see the protests as a major setback for the department.
“Will we ever reach a point where we consistently move forward and not a few steps forward and then 10 steps back?” said Carol Sobel, a longtime civil rights attorney who has won several large lawsuits against the LAPD over its handling of protests and is helping to sue it again now. “And this is at least 10 steps back, if not more.”
Attorney Carol Sobel, a longtime LAPD critic, calls the agency’s actions during the George Floyd protests a major setback. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
For decades, hardline tactics were the norm for the LAPD when officers and protesters met in the streets. The 1960s and 1970s are full of episodes in which a police force that proudly modeled itself after military organizations left people bloodied and dead.
Low points include the police response to the Watts riots in 1965, the violent dispersal of an antiwar protest in Century City against President Lyndon Johnson, and a 1987 protest in support of gay rights, in which Sobel recalled officers on horseback and on foot left demonstrators with head injuries and broken eye sockets.
The police mishandling of the 1992 acquittal of LAPD officers charged in the Rodney King beating was perhaps the darkest moment of the department’s recent past.
Unprepared and poorly trained officers were quickly overwhelmed by the uprising, which ended with thousands injured and 53 people dead, including 10 killed by police. Soldiers were sent in to end the upheaval.
After police forcibly broke up protests outside the 2000 Democratic convention using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, the city ended up paying more than $4 million in legal settlements, and the department agreed to a sweeping series of restrictions on how officers deal with large crowds.
The deal appeared to lead to improvements as department officials worked more closely with march organizers to avoid clashes. The strategy was on display in 2006 when hundreds of thousands of marchers descended on downtown L.A. for a pro-immigration rally.
But the goodwill was short-lived.
At the same immigration demonstrations the next year, a specialized unit of officers, rattled by a group of agitators, marched through MacArthur Park in L.A.’s Westlake neighborhood, injuring nearly 250 protesters and journalists with hard foam bullets and batons.
LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, who had spent years trying to build and repair ties between the department and minority communities, was livid.
On his order, aides produced a scathing report that found commanders had failed to adequately plan for the rally, issued confusing and sometimes contradictory orders and failed to control officers. And the officers, the report concluded, misused their weapons in ways that violated LAPD policies and basic training guidelines.
Then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, at a news conference with then-Police Chief William J. Bratton. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The report and a legal settlement that Sobel helped negotiate, which included court-mandated reforms to how the department policed crowds, marked a turning point. Nearly all of the more than 9,000 officers in the department were retrained in crowd-control tactics.
And, in advance of more demonstrations, hundreds of officers were put through role-playing exercises to practice quickly extracting violent protesters from an otherwise peaceful group.
“Is everyone clear on chain of command?” Michael Hillmann, a deputy chief in charge of the retraining effort, asked at one training session in 2008. “Everyone clear on who is in charge of what?”
In the years that followed, LAPD avoided major debacles. The chief at the time, Charlie Beck, won praise for his generally patient approach to sometimes tense situations, including in 2011 when he waited weeks before breaking up an encampment of protesters on the City Hall lawn and did it without any force being needed.
Sobel, who is involved in current lawsuits against the department, looks back on that period with mixed feelings. “Absolutely, there was progress,” she said, “but there were also opportunities lost.”
Those missed chances, she said, revolved around LAPD’s refusal to quickly cite and release people detained for violating an order to disperse or some other nonviolent violation. Instead, the LAPD has persisted in arresting protesters, often holding them for hours.
For example, after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, the LAPD refrained from widespread uses of force, but arrested more than 320 people, considerably more than in other cities. The trend continued during protests over President Trump’s 2016 election and inauguration.
Sobel said she has been trying for years without success to get department leaders to see that the practice infringes on people’s constitutional right to protest.
Before Trump’s inauguration, the current LAPD chief, Michel Moore, acknowledged the heavy reliance on arrests and defended the practice, saying it is a necessary response to unlawfulness.
Moore and his commanders didn’t shift from this stance when protests over the Floyd killing and police killings of Black people erupted late last month. Nearly 2,500 people have been arrested for violating curfews or failing to disperse.
Those arrested recounted how police surrounded and arrested them with no notice, sometimes before curfews began, and cuffed their hands with plastic zip ties that dug into their skin.
Many were bused to a UCLA sports stadium and other processing sites where they were held in custody for up to 12 hours before being released far from their homes in the early-morning hours.
Beyond the arrests of peaceful protesters, LAPD officers brought a level of force to the first days of the protests that had not been seen in Los Angeles since the MacArthur Park melee in 2007.
In one widely viewed video, officers are seen using batons to forcibly strike marchers who appear to pose no threat. Others show officers firing foam projectiles at protesters. Dozens of people have filed complaints with the LAPD over officers’ behavior during the protests, with at least 28 people alleging that officers used excessive force.
LAPD officers gather in downtown Los Angeles on June 2. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
LAPD Assistant Chief Robert Arcos said in an interview that commanders in the field and senior officials directing the department’s response went into the protests wanting to disperse crowds methodically and without force, but had to escalate their response when they encountered people throwing hard objects at officers, burning cars and stealing from businesses.
“We wanted to help facilitate [the protests] and wanted to help get them to where they want to go. We didn’t want to get in the way,” Arcos said. “There was a number of groups in there that had nothing but the intent to protest peacefully ... But they were embedded with other folks who had different ideas. Their whole intent was to create chaos. Then really we have to switch very quickly from crowd management to crowd control.”
Protesters have challenged that view, saying police instigated crowds by amassing in riot gear and penning people into confined areas with no escape.
The LAPD’s methods eased noticeably as marches went on throughout the week. By the second weekend of unrest, thousands of protesters filled Hollywood Boulevard without a cop in sight. Police staged blocks away, but largely left protesters alone. Things remained largely peaceful.
California Growing the LAPD was gospel at City Hall. George Floyd changed that Mayor Eric Garcetti said he will direct $250 million to youth jobs, health initiatives and “peace centers” to heal trauma, and will allow those who have suffered discrimination to collect damages.
Critics say police changed their tactics after coming under scrutiny for their initial response. Arcos and Moore disagreed, saying the shift was possible because protests grew more peaceful and people intent on doing causing problems stopped showing up in large numbers.
As she starts in on yet another legal battle to once again extract settlement payments and reforms from the LAPD, Sobel, the civil rights attorney, plans to change tack. In the past, agreements hammered out in court included expiration dates. Whatever comes out of this debacle, she said, should be permanent.
“We’ve got to get away from this cycle, this history of backsliding over and over again over 30 years,” Sobel said. “Maybe it’s not as bad as it once was, but it’s still not good.”