Burbank Police Chief Michael Albanese mentioned Wednesday that his officers did nothing improper after they dropped off a shoeless man who collapsed on the sidewalk outdoors Los Angeles Metropolis Council President Paul Krekorian’s workplace in June.
Albanese, talking at a Burbank Metropolis Council assembly, mentioned the Police Division had investigated the incident and cleared the 2 officers concerned.
“The allegations are unfounded,” Albanese mentioned. “He isn’t homeless, and it was not dumping.”
Krekorian didn’t instantly touch upon the Burbank police chief’s findings. On June 6, he accused the officers of dumping the person in his district, releasing video of the incident throughout a crowded information convention at Metropolis Corridor.
Krekorian had alleged the officers dumped the person on June 6, and he launched video of the incident a day later.
The roughly one-minute video captured by a safety digital camera exhibits two Burbank law enforcement officials pulling over on a North Hollywood sidewalk outdoors Krekorian’s workplace and letting a barefoot man out of the again of a police automobile, releasing him from a set of handcuffs. The person limps out and rubs his face earlier than falling on all fours because the officers drive away. Then, he collapses onto his abdomen.
At a June information convention, Krekorian known as for an investigation and criticized Burbank for not doing sufficient for the unhoused.
“We’re going to extraordinary lengths,” Krekorian mentioned, “and lots of of our neighbors will not be offering providers to people who find themselves unhoused.”
However on Wednesday, Albanese mentioned the video didn’t inform the entire story.
He mentioned his officers acted appropriately and didn’t violate division coverage. Then, he pieced collectively the occasions of June 6.
The 2 officers encountered the person bare on a bench outdoors Windfall St. Joseph Medical Middle, he mentioned, noting that the person was initially transported to the Burbank hospital by L.A. metropolis personnel.
“They engaged a male who was very lucid, who knew what he wished and what he didn’t need,” Albanese mentioned. “He wished to be taken to jail.”
Albanese described the person as provocative and troublesome — “a misplaced soul.”
“They supplied him dignity within the second,” he mentioned. “They have been capable of get him garments. St. Joe’s was not.”
Albanese mentioned the officers negotiated with the person to place garments on, and a part of that negotiation was giving the person a experience. He wished to go to Tujunga, however since that was too far, they agreed on the Metro Crimson Line.
Albanese mentioned the person was handcuffed, however maintained that it wasn’t the officers’ thought.
“He advised the officers, ‘Handcuff me so you’re feeling secure with me,’” Albanese mentioned.
On the way in which to the Crimson Line, the person noticed a Starbucks and requested to get out. He obtained out, thanked the officers thrice, and the officers left, Albanese mentioned.
Albanese additionally mentioned the person wasn’t and had by no means been homeless. He mentioned his investigation, which concerned talking with the person’s landlord, revealed that he’d been renting a room in Sylmar for so long as three years.
“The allegations are actually critical — homeless dumping,” he mentioned, including that Krekorian by no means reached out to metropolis officers to determine what occurred. “We work actually onerous to be good neighbors, and that absence of communication was disappointing.”
The Burbank police investigation is full, however the L.A. County district lawyer’s workplace and the California Division of Justice are additionally reviewing the scenario, Albanese mentioned. He added that the FBI had reached out however, upon reviewing the circumstances, discovered that the officers acted appropriately.
Albanese mentioned he would launch an official assertion Thursday.
Instances workers author David Zahniser contributed to this report.
