A British tourist who alleges she was accidentally shot and wounded by police while riding a bicycle on the Venice Boardwalk in 2016 is suing the city.
Abbie Gray’s Los Angeles Superior Court suit, filed Friday, alleges negligence and battery. A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a call for comment on the complaint, which seeks unspecified damages.
Gray, then 24, was traveling along the boardwalk bicycle path about 3 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2016, when LAPD officers approached a group of people with a dog because their personal items were blocking the path, the suit states. One of the officers suddenly fired his gun at the dog “for reasons not currently known to plaintiff,” according to her court papers, which say the bullet struck the animal and passed through its body before striking Gray in the right calf while she was close by.
The officer shot the dog even though it was not a threat to anyone and despite the fact that innocent bystanders like Gray were nearby, according to the suit, which also alleges the officers’ supervisors negligently supervised their subordinates and did not have in place a sound plan for dealing with the dog that did not involve using lethal force.
Gray, who was with her boyfriend visiting Los Angeles from the town of Grays in the English county of Essex, is still suffering from the effects of her injury, according to her complaint.
It wasn’t clear from court papers if the dog died.
–City News Service