The Los Angeles Police Commission ruled Tuesday that two LAPD sergeants acted within department policy last year during a violent arrest of a South L.A. man who died the next day.
Police commissioners unanimously sided with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who recommended the two sergeants and four officers who responded as backup be cleared in the Aug. 2 encounter with Omar Abrego.
The decision caps a nearly year-long review of Abrego’s death, which drew local attention from people protesting killings by police. Abrego died about a week before Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man, who was fatally shot by officers just a few blocks from where Abrego was taken into custody.
Coroner’s officials determined Abrego, 37, died from the effects of cocaine, but listed the “physical and emotional duress” caused by the altercation as a contributing factor.
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