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Just two days after the May 25 killing of George Floyd, Amaurie Johnson was harassed and assaulted by La Mesa police in San Diego County while waiting for his friend to pick him up. In cell phone videos that went viral, Amaurie Johnson was assaulted by now former officer Matt Dages.
A call for justice by Johnson then sparked a protest on May 30 in which thousands of San Diego residents rose up against the La Mesa Police Department. While using her phone to record the protest on May 30, 59-year old Leslie Furcron was shot between the eyes with a “bean bag” round by Detective Eric Knudson of LMPD, resulting in significant injuries. Countless others were also teargassed, shot, or otherwise brutalized by police that night. This violent police repression caused countless more protests to erupt across the county.
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A woman partially blinded by a police beanbag round during a protest in La Mesa in late May has sued the officer who fired the round, accusing him of battery.
In a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court last week, Leslie Furcron also claims Detective Eric Knudson inflicted emotional distress and violated her First Amendment right to protest.
Among other allegations, the lawsuit contends Knudson violated the Police Department’s policies and standard law enforcement practices, alleging he fired a beanbag round into a large crowd at a long distance and aimed at Furcron’s head instead of her arms or legs.