L.A. Cops Shoot Bystanders, the City Pays

Mar 31, 2025

More than 100 times in the last 10 years, LAPD cops chasing suspects fired bullets into crowds, buildings and vehicles, killing at least three bystanders and wounding 18 others.

The real numbers are not known, since the LAPD does not report them, trying to sweep them under the rug instead. The numbers given above came from Los Angeles Times journalists, who examined 350 LAPD shooting incidents that occurred between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2024.

Sometimes the cops’ recklessness is so outrageous that LAPD brass can’t hide it. On July 21, 2018, for example, cops chasing a suspect fired into a crowded grocery store in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood. One of the bullets killed Mely Corado, a 27-year-old store worker, which made big headlines in the media.

Higher-ups still protected the murderous cops. L.A.’s police commission said the shooting was “within department policy”—just like it has done in half of the cases where LAPD cops shot bystanders. Finally, when Corado’s family threatened a lawsuit, city officials agreed to pay 9.5 million dollars to avoid a trial.

That money, like other LAPD payouts, came from the city budget. Last year, the City of L.A. paid a total of 30 million dollars for LAPD bystander shootings. Taking into account other deaths and injuries caused by cops, as well as harassment and discrimination cases within the LAPD, the total amount the city paid out for LAPD misconduct topped 100 million dollars in the 2024 fiscal year alone.

Workers not only pay for the cost of a large police force with cuts in jobs and essential services, but that police force is used to brutalize people in L.A.’s impoverished working-class neighborhoods.