An ex-LAPD officer who shot and killed an unarmed homeless man in 2015 was arrested on a felony murder warrant Thursday, authorities said.
Clifford Proctor, 60, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after flying back to the U.S. from a foreign country, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal case.
“The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of the arrest of a former LAPD officer at Los Angeles International Airport on a felony murder warrant,” the department said in a statement.
The fatal 2015 confrontation triggered a decadelong legal fight over whether Proctor should face criminal charges for his on-duty actions.
Proctor fired two fatal shots into the back of Brendon Glenn, 29, after a dispute with a bouncer outside a bar near the Venice Speedway in May 2015. Glenn was unarmed at the time, and the shooting sparked outrage and protests.
Former Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck publicly called for Proctor to be charged in the shooting. In 2018, then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey declined bring a case.
Sources previously told The Times that a warrant for Proctor’s arrest was issued last year, after then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón had the case reviewed by a special prosecutor, Lawrence Middleton, whom he hired to re-examine prosecutions of police in on-duty shootings. Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman fired Middleton earlier this year.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment. Calls to Gascón, Middleton and Michael Gennaco, the special prosecutor Hochman placed over the case earlier this year, were not immediately returned.
Bill Seki, Proctor’s former defense attorney, said he had no information about an arrest. Court records do not show the filing of a criminal complaint against Proctor.
Proctor was known to be living outside the country at the time Gascón obtained the arrest warrant last year, multiple law enforcement sources told The…