LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A Los Angeles Dodgers fan has alleged in a federal lawsuit filed this week that he suffered significant, permanent eye damage when an L.A. police officer fired a projectile on him during a 2020 World Series celebration.
The plaintiff, Isaac Castellanos, who at the time was a 22-year-old Cal State Long Beach student, said he was left partially blinded by the incident.
Castellanos said he was peacefully celebrating the Dodgers’ victory amid a crowd in the area of the Crypto.com arena in downtown L.A. in the early hours of Oct. 28, 2020. At around 1 a.m., police moved in on the revelers.
Castellanos said he “briefly turned in the direction of the officers” to grab a friend so they could depart the area when he was struck in the right eye by a projectile fired by an unidentified officer more than 60 feet away.
“I immediately knew what happened,” Castellanos told The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “I was kind of shocked for a second.
Castellanos said he and his friend had not broken any laws and were not posing a threat to officers when he was hit. He also claimed he heard no order by police to disperse before officers rushed on the crowd and fired projectile launchers.
His complaint alleged “unreasonably force” deployed “indiscriminately, and without warning” by LAPD officers. Castellanos further alleged the shooting immediately blinded him in the right eye, and has never fully recovered his vision in subsequent months.
“In the direct middle, it is completely black,” he told the Times.
His suit sought damages from the city, including compensation to the plaintiff for lost earnings in competitive gaming, also known as esports, a field from which he had drawn an income prior to the shooting.
The LAPD declined to comment on pending litigation.
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