Personnel complaint lodged against LAPD officer who punched handcuffed man

A man who was seen being punched by a Los Angeles police officer while handcuffed did nothing to provoke the attack, which was captured in a bystander video that went viral, his relatives and an attorney said Tuesday.

Alexander Donta Mitchell had been parked in his silver Dodge Charger near the corner of 113th Street and Graham Avenue in Watts, waiting for a friend, when police showed up. Mitchell demanded repeatedly to know why he was being arrested and was otherwise cooperative throughout the Sunday evening encounter, including at the moment he was punched, an attorney for Mitchell said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

The punch left Mitchell with a broken nose and pain in his jaw, said attorney Brad Gage. Police said he received medical attention at an area hospital and was later released after being issued a misdemeanor citation for resisting arrest.

“It was brutal, it was uncalled for, it was unjustified,” Gage said, adding that he intended to file a governmental claim against the city, the precursor to a lawsuit. “This officer clearly has anger management issues, and he doesn’t deserve to remain on the force.”

Gage also questioned whether the officer’s partner should have stepped in when the punch was thrown, citing the department’s duty-to-intervene policy. He said he believed there was additional video of the incident showing multiple punches were thrown.

He said he advised Mitchell to not speak to reporters because of the pending criminal case.

In the hours after the incident, a video of the officer punching Mitchell began ricocheting around social media. The bystander video, which was picked up by news outlets across the country, showed two officers struggling with Mitchell, whose hands are bound behind his back with two pairs of handcuffs.

Mitchell did not appear to be struggling with the officers and could be heard loudly demanding, “What did I do?” just before one of the officers suddenly punched him in the jaw. Mitchell appeared unfazed by the hit.

The incident also sparked calls for the officer to be criminally charged.

“We are not going back to the Daryl Gates style of policing,” said Najee Ali, an activist who is working with the family.

As the video started making the rounds online, a coalition of Los Angeles civil rights leaders and organizations began calling for L.A. District Atty. George Gascón to immediately file criminal charges against the unnamed LAPD officer.

In a brief statement Tuesday, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said it would not comment because it had not been presented with a criminal case.

“We are aware of this matter and understand that the investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department is ongoing,” the statement read.

Mitchell’s mother, An’tneal Harris, said she expected consequences for the officer who “sucker-punched my son when he was in handcuffs.” Harris, who flew in from her home in Houston, said the encounter could have ended differently.

“I could’ve been here planning for a funeral,” she told reporters. “I’m speaking for all mothers; this could’ve been somebody else’s son.”

The news conference unfolded outside police headquarters. Inside the building, LAPD officials were briefing the Police Commission, the five-member civilian body that oversees the department.

Assistant Chief Blake Chow, the department’s acting leader while interim Chief Dominic Choi is out of town, said officers were riding through the area around 3:20 p.m. Sunday when they saw a vehicle double-parked and facing the wrong direction. Police said they could not immediately tell whether someone was inside the car because of its heavily tinted windows. Officers asked Mitchell to exit the car and were in the process of handcuffing him when one of the officers punched him.

Chow said senior lead officers from the surrounding Southeast Division were conducting community outreach in the wake of the incident.

He said that the officer involved, whom he did not name, had been relieved of duty and that a personnel complaint investigation had been launched.

According to a department source, Chow and other senior department officials were briefed on the incident and watched body camera video.

The recording showed a lengthy argument that ensued when police first approached Mitchell; officers decided to detain Mitchell and were forced to use two sets of handcuffs because of his size, according to the source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorize to speak to the media.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the city’s rank-and-file officers, warned against jumping to conclusions based on video that captured only a portion of the encounter.

“This incident never happens if the individual is not double-parked facing traffic, thus creating a traffic hazard, and if the individual simply complies with simple requests from the responding officers instead of resisting,” said Craig Lally, the union’s president. “The officers followed their training, and sometimes placing someone into handcuffs gets physical. It is the suspect’s actions that most oftentimes dictates the level of physicality.”

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

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Libor Jany covers the Los Angeles Police Department. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2022, he covered public safety for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. A St. Paul, Minn., native, Jany studied communications at Mississippi State University.

Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. Known as @lacrimes on Twitter, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004 and 2016.