Ex-LAPD officer indicted again on murder charge in 2015 killing of homeless man

Just months after a judge threw out a murder charge against him, a former LAPD officer has once again been indicted in the 2015 killing of an unarmed homeless man in Venice Beach.

Clifford Proctor, 61, was indicted on one count of second-degree murder for shooting Brendon Glenn in the back while trying to arrest him outside a Venice bar in May 2015, according to Michael Gennaco, a special prosecutor hired by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman to review a number of complicated police use-of-force cases.

Proctor pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance Monday, according to a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. Proctor’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the night of the killing, Proctor and his partner, Jonathan Kawahara, were responding to calls about Glenn and his dog causing a disturbance in Venice Beach. Glenn had just been thrown out of a bar and got into an argument with Proctor over the behavior of his dog, authorities have previously said. Proctor threatened to shoot the animal. Glenn responded by hurling several racial slurs at Proctor. Both men are Black.

Glenn continued walking down a beach path, getting into an argument with a bouncer outside a separate bar. When Proctor and Kawahara moved in to arrest him, a struggle ensued. Proctor has claimed through his attorneys that Glenn reached for his partner’s weapon before he opened fire.

Video evidence from the scene does not appear to show Glenn reaching for anyone’s gun. Kawahara told investigators he did not believe Glenn was trying to get control of his weapon at the time Proctor began shooting, according to grand jury testimony in the previous murder case against Proctor.

The former officer also made a different self-defense claim on the night of the shooting, according to grand jury testimony. DiMario Thomas Sr., a bar bouncer who witnessed Glenn’s death, said Proctor practically begged him to back his version of events after the shooting.

“The officer went inside, said something along the lines like, ‘Mario, you seen him — you saw him — you saw him reach for my gun,’” Thomas said, according to the transcripts. “I looked him in his face and said, ‘I didn’t see s—.’”

When he dismissed the case in June, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen said he believed Proctor had a reasonable belief that Glenn was a threat when he opened fire. Prosecutors immediately appealed Coen’s ruling. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office couldn’t immediately comment on the status of that appeal.

While Hochman has faced criticism for his handling of cases involving police violence, he has steadfastly pursued Proctor over the last year, even publicly pushing back on Coen’s ruling in June.

Glenn’s death prompted outrage and protests in 2015, and then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called on prosecutors to file manslaughter charges against Proctor. But then-Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey declined to press charges. When George Gascón ousted her from office in 2020 after running a campaign focused on police accountability, he hired a special prosecutor to reexamine the case.

“This shooting will look as bad to a jury 11 years later as it did when LAPD Chief Beck called for a criminal prosecution in 2015. It is way past time for Officer Proctor to be charged for the murder of Brendon Glenn,” said civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone, who represents Glenn’s family.

An indictment charging Proctor with murder was returned in 2024, but prosecutors never moved to advance the case or even looked to take him into custody. Despite the existence of a warrant for his arrest, Proctor was able to travel the globe freely until U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport last October.