The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says a bystander’s cellphone footage showing a deputy violently tackling a woman while she filmed her husband being handcuffed and pepper-spraying her in the face is “ disturbing,” and community groups on Wednesday called for the department's new sheriff to hold his agency accountable.
The June 24 incident in the city of Lancaster follows several cases that have drawn scrutiny to the department amid allegations of excessive use of force by its deputies. It's also testing the reform efforts of the new sheriff, Robert Luna, a former Long Beach police chief who has vowed to overhaul the nation's largest sheriff's department since taking it over in December after defeating incumbent Alex Villanueva.
