A Los Angeles County grand jury indicted former LAPD Officer Clifford Proctor, 61, on second-degree murder in the May 5, 2015, shooting death of Brendon Glenn near the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The indictment, unsealed Aug. 31, came months after the same special prosecutor recommended dismissing manslaughter charges against two Torrance officers in a separate fatal police shooting. The contrasting outcomes have drawn sharp criticism from victims' families who question whether the DA's office applies a consistent standard to police use-of-force cases.

Proctor pleaded not guilty and faces up to life in prison if convicted. He was scheduled for a Sept. 4 pretrial hearing at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

The Glenn case

Glenn, a 29-year-old unarmed Black man experiencing homelessness, was shot twice by Proctor during a confrontation outside a Venice bar. Proctor's partner, Officer Jonathan Kawahara, told investigators he did not believe Glenn was trying to grab his weapon when Proctor fired, according to the Los Angeles Times. Video from the scene does not appear to show Glenn reaching for a gun.

The case has spanned three district attorneys. Then-DA Jackie Lacey declined to file charges despite then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck's public call for a manslaughter prosecution. Former DA George Gascón reopened the case in 2021 and hired special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton, who obtained a murder indictment in September 2024. A judge dismissed that indictment in June 2026, finding Middleton failed to present sufficient evidence of malice and did not properly show exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman then appointed Michael Gennaco, a police use-of-force expert and independent auditor, as a new special prosecutor. Gennaco presented the case to a second grand jury, which returned the new indictment.

Despite an active murder warrant, Proctor traveled internationally and lived at home for more than a year before U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport in October 2025, the Times reported.

Hochman said in an Aug. 31 statement that Gennaco examined all the evidence and that Proctor's decision to shoot Glenn without justification showed conscious disregard for human life.

The Mitchell case

On April 16, a judge dismissed voluntary manslaughter charges against former Torrance officers Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez in the Dec. 9, 2018, killing of 23-year-old Christopher De'Andre Mitchell. Hochman's office had filed the motion to dismiss in November 2025.

Mitchell, a Black man, was sitting in a stolen Honda Civic in a Torrance supermarket parking lot when officers approached. They said they saw what appeared to be a short-barreled firearm between his legs. The object was later identified as an altered air rifle. Officers shot Mitchell three times within about 12 seconds. He died at the scene.

Gennaco found that a critical portion of Mitchell's movement before the shooting was not visible on body-camera footage because Concannon's firearm blocked the camera's view. He also found that Middleton failed to show grand jurors all available video and did not properly instruct them on the legal elements of voluntary manslaughter, NBC Los Angeles reported. A lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter could have been pursued, but the three-year statute of limitations expired in December 2021 before the case reached a grand jury.

Judge Sam Ohta wrote a 34-page opinion finding no evidence prosecutors sought the dismissal in bad faith.

Families push back

Sherilyn Haines, Mitchell's mother, addressed Ohta directly before he granted the dismissal.

"Please stop protecting them when they're doing wrong. … They're going to keep on killing our kids with the same 'We feared for our life' speech," Haines said.

Mitchell's family was awarded $7.8 million in 2022 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Concannon remains on administrative leave with the Torrance Police Department. Chavez is no longer with the department.

No on-duty shooting in Los Angeles County has produced a guilty verdict since 2000, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Glenn case is now heading toward a criminal trial more than 11 years after Glenn's death.