A West Hollywood woman’s video documenting a troubling moment during a protest against recent ICE raids in Los Angeles is going viral, raising new questions about police use of force and crowd control tactics.
The video, captured by Alexandria Augustin on Monday night along 3rd Street, shows a woman approaching a skirmish line of law enforcement officers when, without visible provocation, an officer appears to fire a less-lethal round at her.
“They’re telling her to move, but that’s a public sidewalk,” Augustin is heard saying moments before the shot is fired. “Watch if they shoot her… that’s messed up.”
Augustin told reporters she had briefly spoken with the woman before the incident. “She said she was just trying to make her way home,” Augustin said. “She didn’t have anything on her. It seemed like she was just passing through.”
Seconds later, as seen in the video, an officer appears to lower a flashlight — and another fires what Augustine says was a rubber bullet, striking the woman in the abdomen.
The sound of the shot is followed by audio of the woman groaning in pain, as bystanders rush to her aid. “She’s not doing anything!” one can be heard yelling.
Augustin, who has been active in documenting protest responses in Los Angeles, expressed concern about the way officers deploy crowd control weapons.
“I think the biggest misconception here is that these rubber bullets are not lethal,” she said. “They can still cause lethal injuries.”
In a statement to KTLA, the Los Angeles Police Department said it could not confirm whether the officers in the video were LAPD based solely on the footage. However, the department emphasized that all use-of-force incidents involving less-lethal munitions would be investigated.
At a press conference on Friday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell did not directly address the video, but said ongoing reviews would assess potential training, tactics, and equipment failures.
“These incidents are investigated thoroughly,” McDonnell said. “We’ll look and see—are there training issues? Are there less-lethal issues that need to be addressed?”
Augustin, however, believes what’s happening on L.A.’s streets signals a deeper concern.
“It’s really hard to give the benefit of the doubt,” she said. “What’s going on in L.A. right now is a test of how much people will allow to happen.”
