Anti-police protesters early Sunday morning tried to enter a California hospital where two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were being treated for injuries suffered during an ambush on their patrol car.
The video: Footage posted online showed protesters being stopped at the gates of St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and arguing with security over whether the hospital is public or private property.
Protesters can be heard taunting and cursing the officers, shouting, “F*ck the police!” and “oink, oink, oink!”
- “That’s why you’re dying one by one, you stupid f*cks,” says one protester after an officer appears to point a weapon at the group. “Y’all gonna die one by one. This ain’t gonna stop.”
- “You’re next with the f*cking hot pocket, b*tch,” he says.
- “I want to deliver a message to the family of the [inaudible]: I hope they f*cking die,” someone else says.
A local faith leader who was at the hospital told a KABC reporter the protesters tried to get into the hospital emergency room.
- “They were saying, ‘Death to the police,’ and, ‘Kill the police,’ and these are sheriffs, but the message is still the same. They were using all types of curse words and derogatory terms,” he said.
- “Unacceptable behavior, because a hospital should be a sanctuary.”
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, protesters were blocking the entrance and exit of the hospital emergency room and shouting of the wounded deputies, “We hope they die.”
- Deputies issued a dispersal order for “the unlawful assembly of a group of protesters” and arrested two people, including LAist reporter Josie Huang, who was released Sunday morning.
- Online footage suggests there were fewer than 10 protesters in total at the hospital.
Who would do this?: Kevin Wharton Price, the leader of Africa Town Coalition, said in a video posted to Facebook later on Sunday that he had been involved in the protest, along with three followers of his a black separatist group.
- Price denied they tried to infiltrate the emergency room but was otherwise unapologetic about their actions.
- “Those gang-banging sheriffs’ lives don’t mean nothing nothing to me. Nothing,” he said.
The shooting: The two wounded deputies were out of surgery and recovering on Sunday after being rushed to the hospital and listed in critical condition the previous day.
- The department has yet to release the names of the deputies but said the woman is a 31-year-old mother of a 6-year-old boy and the man is a 24 years old.
The deputies were shot while parked in their patrol car near a Metro rail station in Compton, California, which neighbors Lynwood on the southern border of downtown Los Angeles.
- The Los Angeles Times reported one of the deputies was shot in the face and the other was shot in the head in what the department called an “ambush” caught on surveillance video.
- Authorities launched a massive manhunt for the unidentified gunman and offered a $100,000 reward.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other local and national leaders have condemned the shooting, which came amid protests against racism and policing in the Los Angeles area and nationwide.
- President Donald Trump on Saturday night shared the video of the ambush on Twitter and commented: “Animals that must be hit hard.”
- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday tweeted: “This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice.”
But the protesters at the hospital were not alone in suggesting the shooting was somehow justified.
- At least one bystander appeared to celebrate the attack in real time.
- And Jose Ometeotl, the city manager of Lynwood, said on Sunday in an Instagram post, “Chickens Come Home to Roost.”
