Man dragged down street by LAPD vehicle hospitalized

Police have released video of a 22-year-old man being dragged down a street by a Los Angeles Police Department patrol vehicle last month, authorities said Wednesday. 

The incident, which was captured on nearby surveillance cameras, as well as officers’ body-worn cameras, unfolded on Sept. 11 in the 6000 block of Sunset Boulevard just after 12:30 a.m.

Officers with LAPD’s Hollywood Division responded to calls of a battery suspect at the location. At the scene, police saw the suspect, later identified as L.A. resident Robert Thompson, being escorted out of a bar located on the second floor of a multi-unit shopping center by security guards, police said in a news release.  

Police believed Thompson, who was being cooperative, was intoxicated, but because they could not locate the victim of the alleged battery, they told the 22-year-old to leave the location. 

As the officers entered their vehicle and drove to the south end of the parking lot, video shows Thompson approaching the patrol vehicle’s rear driver’s side door before he’s dragged out of the parking lot and onto Sunset Boulevard.  

“The driver officer verbalized with the subject to step back, to which he appeared to comply,” the release stated. “As officers began to pull out of the parking lot and turn westbound onto Sunset Boulevard, the subject became caught or held onto the rear driver side of the police vehicle and was pulled approximately 15 feet before falling onto the roadway.” 

The officers stopped their vehicle and pulled the 22-year-old, who was unconscious but breathing, out of the middle of the road before calling medical personnel with the Los Angeles Fire Department.  

Paramedics took Thompson, who suffered a fractured skull, a bleeding brain, a broken jaw and multiple abrasions to his knee and upper body, to a local hospital where he was listed in stable condition at the time.  

LAPD’s Force Investigation Division and from the Multi-Disciplinary Collision Investigation Team also responded to the scene and are investigating the incident.