A woman in California is suing the Los Angeles police department for $10 million after she was shot in the head by a foam bullet fired by the force during George Floyd protests.
Yasmine Morales, 26, said that she was driving through the city on the night of May 30, heading to the Target store at The Grove shopping district, when she was caught in the line of fire.
‘She was sitting in her car, and she got shot,’ said Neama Rahmani, one of Morales’s attorneys.
He told DailyMail.com that she spent nine days in hospital with a fractured skull, a brain bleed and internal injuries, and even now has to use a walker.
‘It’s a very strong case,’ he said.
Yasmine Morales was driving in Los Angeles on May 30 when she was hit by a foam bullet
Morales, 26, required 20 stitches and suffered a fractured cheekbone, traumatic brain injury, bruising and impaired vision. She is still unable to walk, her attorney told DailyMail.com
Morales was driving, and was accompanied by a friend in the passenger seat.
The projectile, likely a 40mm hard foam round, flew in through her open driver’s side window around 8pm on May 30 – one of the most intense days of nationwide protest since George Floyd’s May 25 killing in Minneapolis.
The impact nearly knocked her unconscious, Rahmani said.
He said that eyewitnesses claimed the police officer fired the projectile from inside a police car.
Rahmani said that the incident was ‘a drive-by shooting’.
‘For an officer in a black-and-white to shoot a nearby driver in the face is not tactical police work so much as a drive-by shooting,’ he said.
He and his team have filed a claim against the City of Los Angeles, alleging the LAPD officer clearly violated department guidelines for using such force.
If they deny it, or do not respond in 45 days, then he can begin legal proceedings.
‘It was willful officer misconduct,’ Rahmani said.
‘The officer took deliberate aim and fired while she was driving her car. There’s no defense for that brutality.’
Yasmine Morales pictured before the May 30 incident. LAPD say they are investigating
Police in Los Angeles on May 30, when protests against George Floyd’s killing turned violent
Members of the LAPD are seen armed with ‘non-lethal weapons’, firing rubber or foam bullets
Josh Rubenstein, communication director for the LAPD, told the Los Angeles Times that the department was ‘not previously aware of this incident’ and is now looking into the claim’s statements.
Morales has said that she remembers little of the incident, and woke up in the Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
Her friend drove her the few blocks to the hospital.
Morales said she does not remember hearing any warning or order from the officers.
Protesters were not around her Toyota, but were nearby.
On the night of May 30 protests descended into violence, with officers using batons and firing hard foam rounds into the crowd, some of whom set fire to parked police cars.
Rahmani said she required 20 stitches and suffered a fractured cheekbone, traumatic brain injury, bruising and impaired vision.
She remains unable to walk without support of a walker, he said.
‘In brain injury cases, she could get better in a matter of weeks or suffer lifelong impacts,’ he said.
Looters steal from an Apple store in The Grove on May 30 – the night Morales was hit
Thieves clashed with the police and stole thousands of dollars of merchandise on May 30
An LAPD police officer tries to put out a fire at a kiosk at The Grove on May 30 during riots
Protesters clash with members of the LAPD on May 30, as protests sprung up across the U.S.
An LAPD spokeswoman previously said the department is reviewing use of the ‘less-lethal’ weapons like the 40mm launcher and plans to release the findings ‘at a later time.’
Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, said that he had directed the LAPD to ‘minimize’ use of the less-lethal weapons when dealing with peaceful protesters.
A review of dozens of instances of police force during the George Floyd protests, carried out by the LA Times, found that demonstrators suffered a range of injuries at the hands of the LAPD.
Some suffered minor bruising from baton strikes and falls, while others were left with serious injuries to their genitals and heads from foam and sponge bullets and beanbags being launched into crowds, sometimes from close range.
A 2017 analysis of 1,984 people struck by rubber or plastic bullets found that 3 per cent were killed and 15 per cent permanently injured.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal BMJ Open, reviewed 30 years of scientific papers worldwide on injuries from kinetic impact projectiles, or KIPs, which include rubber-coated bullets, beanbag rounds, sponge rounds and others.