KTLA

Protesters, residents allege LAPD violence during Echo Park encampment sweep, including projectiles fired at close range

Activists and supporters of residents of a homeless encampment confront police at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles late on March 24, 2021, ahead of a planned and announced clean-up of the encampment. (Ringo Chiu / AFP / Getty Images)

One protester said he suffered a massive welt and deep purple bruising on his thigh after being shot with a projectile by a Los Angeles police officer at close range in Echo Park last week. Another protester on the same skirmish line said an officer broke his arm with an aggressive baton strike.

The next night, in the same neighborhood, a news photographer suffered a large circular welt on his abdomen and another on his arm after, he said, an officer shot him with a projectile at “point blank” range. A local resident caught up in the commotion said she suffered a concussion after twice being thrown to the ground by officers in the alleyway next to her home.

Another protester and her partner said they each were shot with projectiles at close range; he was bloodied and bruised on the arm and she was left with a welt across her ribcage. A third protester captured startling video of an officer repeatedly firing projectiles into their small group — at times with the bright green barrel of his “less lethal” weapon just feet from protesters’ faces.

“Leave the area!” the officer shouted.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.