The man violently hit by an LAPD officer during an arrest late last month in Boyle Heights is expected to attend a protest being held Friday in front of the Hollenbeck police station.
Richard Castillo is suing the city of Los Angeles and the police officers involved in the April 27 alleged assault, recorded on video and widely posted on social media. He and his lawyer will be at the 5 pm protest, organizers say.
The protest is being organized by Centro CSO: Community Service Organization, a Boyle Heights group that has started an online petition and campaign to have the officer involved in the beating fired by the LAPD and criminally prosecuted by the LA District Attorney’s office.
The LAPD said the officer seen in the video is being investigated for assault. He has been reassigned to home duty. The DA’s office has said it won’t make a decision on the case until the LAPD completes its investigation. On Monday, videos from body cameras worn by the officers involved in the incident were released by LAPD.
The officer has been identified by various sources as Frank Hernández, a 23-year-old LAPD veteran who has been involved in at least three shootings in his career –including the 2010 killing of a day laborer in the Westlake district that sparked several days of protests and unrest in that neighborhood.
Organizers say that joining Castillo and CSO activists will be the relatives of various young men who have died in officer-involved shootings in Boyle Heights in recent years.
The protest will be at 5 pm on Friday, May 15 at the LAPD Hollenbeck station, 2111 East First Street, in Boyle Heights.
