A protester who is suing the city of Los Angeles and several LAPD officers after being shot and badly wounded by a police projectile during a major protest in the city this summer has been charged with assault in the same incident.
Bradley Steyn, 49, was charged with assaulting an officer and resisting or obstructing an officer in a misdemeanor complaint filed in California Superior Court by City Atty. Mike Feuer’s office Monday, court records show. The complaint alleges Steyn “willfully and unlawfully [used] force and violence” against an LAPD officer — identified only as Officer K. Clark — during a protest in the Fairfax district on May 30.
The underlying encounter is one that has garnered attention for months, first after Steyn began sharing his experience of being shot and rushed into emergency surgery for a ruptured testicle, and later as the LAPD released body camera video showing him lunging forward in an apparent attempt to kick an officer on the skirmish line in the moments before he was shot.
Police and their supporters pointed to the incident as an example of the violence that police face during such events, and have suggested that Steyn’s allegedly kicking the officer gave the second officer cause to see him as a threat and to shoot him.
Read the full story at LATimes.com.