The Los Angeles
Police Commission found that LAPD Officer Toni McBride violated
department protocol by continuing to fire Daniel Hernandez during a tragic
incident in April. The commission said that McBride's initial four gunshots
were permissible and valid, but her fifth and sixth gunshots were not.
Toni McBride,
just 23, was filled with young excitement as she approached the commencement of
her career in law enforcement.
A series of Internet videos show the Los
Angeles Police Department officer firing away at targets on a shooting range in
the Simi Valley foothills with prize-winning speed and precision.
McBride, a
member of the Newton Division of the LAPD, used a variety of shotguns,
handguns, and assault weapons. She strutted and cavorted in front of
Hollywood's Hollywood elite, who used the same firing range to polish their
gunplay for movies and television.
In one
video, Keanu Reeves, the actor, screamed out to her LAPD division, and the
young policeman chuckled with joy. She clapped and shouted, "Hey, he
knows!" “Shooting Newton!” exclaims the narrator.
However,
McBride's gun use became deadly serious less than two weeks after the video was
posted.
On April 22,
she was approached in the middle of a run-down street south of downtown by a
man holding a razor box cutter. With each shoot, she killed Daniel Hernandez, a
38-year-old carpet installer and father of a teenage daughter, with her Glock
17.
Despite the
fact that Hernandez's family swiftly condemned McBride's use of excessive
force, the event received national notice just a month later. Hernandez's killing
has now become a rallying point, with Black Lives Matter protesting it and a
district attorney candidate questioning it.
McBride's
defenders portray her as a police officer attempting to protect herself and the
public from a dangerous individual. The incident, according to Hernandez's
family and lawyers, illustrates the indiscriminate use of force that has
troubled Black and Latino communities for centuries.
Expert on
police use of force Ed Obayashi supported McBride as a police officer who was
performing her duty in what he described as a "clear-cut justified
shooting." After seeing video of the event, Obayashi claimed he was
convinced. “There is absolutely no doubt in my opinion that this officer was
facing an urgent threat to her life,” he added.
The
Hernandez family will have a difficult time getting a fair hearing because to
McBride's father's influence on the LAPD department as one of the nine
directors of the LAPD's powerful labour union. They've asked for the
investigation to be taken up by the state attorney general's office.
McBride, now back on regular patrol duty, has been immersed in a world of policing since her
childhood growing up in Ventura County. She
entered the Police Academy at 20 and became "top shot" in her class.
She later practiced her shooting at Taran Tactical Innovations, a Simi Valley shooting
range. One follower deemed McBride the "#HottestCopEver"
The Hernandez family, on the other hand, claims that the frothy,
rapid-fire footage show a type of gun use that is incompatible with LAPD
policy, which calls for measured and deliberate action.
Butler did not return a phone call requesting comment for this article.
Attorney Larry Hanna said his client, McBride, behaved admirably in a complex
and fast-evolving scene that led to the confrontation with Hernandez.
McBride repeatedly instructs Hernandez to stop and drop the knife,
according to video from the scene. Hanna claimed she followed her LAPD training
to the letter and can be seen on video “doing everything she can to deescalate this situation.”
McBride's decision-making will be broken down and analyzed, shot by
shot.
The LAPD's use-of-force policy says the officer's judgment will be
assessed "from the perspective of a reasonable Los Angeles police
officer".
McBride, according to Hernandez's parents, should have done more to
deescalate the situation. They claim she reacted in the same way as the
competitive shooter seen on camera, hurrying to get bullets off. "She
loves shoot to all these things as fast as she can," said the
family's lawyer.
Third Party
Thoughts
Some of the
folks living in mobile homes and trailers along San Pedro Street thought the
shooting was unnecessary.
Israel
Espinoza, 75, claimed he spoke with Hernandez for a few moments after his
shattered automobile came to a halt. He looked at Hernandez's box cutter and
decided it wasn't unsafe.
As Hernandez
exited his pickup truck, Yolanda Madison, 56, claimed she spoke with him.
Madison claimed, "I warned him to surrender or they were going to shoot
him."
"They
even cuffed him after he was dead," Espinoza says. "That's what we
are to the police, dead meat" A use-of-force expert calls Hernandez's
actions "violently aggressive" He says McBride had no choice but to
"end the threat" when Hernandez lurched forward.
Hernandez
had been at home when he claimed to have inadvertently sprayed an LAPD officer
with a garden hose. Officers pepper-sprayed him, dragged him to a children's
swimming pool and forced his head into the water. When he said he couldn't
breathe, the officers allegedly laughed and dunked his head again.
The lawsuit
was dismissed.
McBride has taken down Instagram
posts that had attracted nearly 47,000 followers. Her commitment to being a
police officer has not faded, her layer says. "I absolutely love my job
and can't see myself doing anything else," McBride says.
Written By - Anjali Gupta
Edited By - Gunika Manchanda
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