DA Gascón vows police accountability two years after George Floyd's death
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County District Attorney, George Gascón, held a press conference Wednesday in honor of the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder. In the press conference, he said he vowed to hold police officers accountable for alleged misconduct.
"In LA County, I made a commitment that we will ensure that we will do everything we can to have good law enforcement in our county," he said. Gascón said his office has charged several officers after reopening cases.
"In the last 18 months, we have charged 19 cases against 19 police officers," he said.
Gascón said five officers from four different agencies have been charged with assault. Four other officers have been charged with filing false police reports and destroying evidence.
Eddie F. Gonzalez, an ex-Long Beach school safety officer, was charged with one count of murder for the death of Manuela "Mona" Rodriguez; and Andrew Lyons, a former sheriff's deputy, is facing voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault for the death of Ryan Twyman.
"We will continue to ensure that we do our work and that we support those that are doing good work and we hold accountable those who are not. We also have a special prosecutor looking at several other cases, and we're awaiting the results of this investigation," said Gascón.
Black Lives Matter protesters held their weekly rally Wednesday calling for police accountability and ending police associations. BLM Los Angeles co-founder, Melina Abdullah, spoke about George Floyd.
"We witnessed as George Floyd, a Black father, and brother and son had the life stolen from him. It was an agonizing nine minutes and 29 seconds when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin ground his knee into George Floyd's neck," said Abdullah.
Abdullah also responded to comments made by Gascón about holding officers accountable.
"We are appreciative that the current DA, DA Gascón is doing work to hold police accountable, and we know more needs to be done," she said. "We know that there are hundreds and hundreds of officers who have stolen life and we'd like every single one of them to be charged, every single one of them to be held accountable and the system of public safety to be completely transformed."
During the BLM rally, the community members spoke about the "People's Budget" which organizers said was put together after interviewing thousands of Angelenos, and shows policing as a low priority for the residents interviewed.