An LAPD officer, whose sharp social media posts gained widespread attention after she was involved in a deadly shooting, filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit on Thursday. Tuesday against Sheriff Michel Moore and the department.
LAPD Officer Toni McBride Allegations that Moore blocked her ads because she refused to remove from her social media feed videos of her at shooting competitions or training at shooting ranges. In the lawsuit filed in federal court, McBride claims that Moore told her she had to delete her social media accounts or “he would destroy her career.”
McBride, who is seeking more than $5 million in damages, has been on medical leave since November due to “severe and aggravated stress-induced physical symptoms,” according to the lawsuit.
An LAPD spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
McBride’s social media posts gained attention in 2020 after she shot six times a 38-year-old man holding a box cutter, killing him. McBride and her partner responded to a collision on San Pedro Street near East 32nd Street that involved several motorists severely injured when their vehicle was hit by a van driven by Daniel Hernandez. hit control. A toxicology report showed that Hernandez had methamphetamine on him at the time.
McBride repeatedly ordered Hernandez to drop his weapon, according to video taken by McBride’s body camera and smartphone witnesses. As Hernandez approached her, she shot him twice, then fired two more as he struggled to get up. Her last two shots came as he was rolling around on the ground.
After the shooting, McBride told investigators she felt Hernandez posed a danger to bystanders in the area.
The Los Angeles Police Department found McBride violated department policy by continuing to shoot Hernandez during the fatal encounter. The committee found the first four photos of McBride to be reasonable, but her fifth and sixth photos were not.
California Attorney. General Rob Bonta’s office cleared McBride in part based on an “expert opinion” Controversial police use of force advisor. Bonta’s office took over the shooting review after the former Los Angeles County. Atty. Jackie Lacey reuses herself.
McBride’s father, Jamie McBride, is one of nine directors of the powerful Los Angeles Police Protection League, which represents rank-and-file officers in labor and disciplinary matters. The LA police union raised money for Lacey’s campaigns.
The younger McBride won a “Top Shot” in the LAPD police academy and was the youngest in her class when she graduated at age 20, according to her lawsuit. She said in the lawsuit that she participated in – and won – target shooting competitions around the country, which she regularly chronicles on her social media accounts.
In the lawsuit, McBride’s attorney said it was not the shooting of Hernandez that caused the sheriff to block McBride’s career advancement opportunities last year.
“Sheriff Moore told Officer McBride that he wanted her to stop posting the video on social media,” according to the lawsuit. “He said Officer McBride needed to ‘choose between being an LAPD officer’ or posting the video on social media.”
McBride suggested that her posts “virtually resemble dozens of videos regularly posted by male officers. But when it came to Officer McBride, Sheriff Moore told her he didn’t like ‘the image they presented,'” according to the lawsuit.
