Jury awards $3.75M to protester hit by hard-foam projectiles fired by Los Angeles police in 2020

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury has awarded $3.75 million in damages to a protester shot twice with hard-foam projectiles fired by Los Angeles police during demonstrations in 2020. The LA Times reports that jurors ruled Wednesday that the LA Police Department was negligent when one or more of its officers fired the so-called less-lethal devices at Asim Jamal Shakir Jr. Civil rights attorney Carl Douglas says he hopes the sizable damages awarded will signal that similar acts of police violence cannot be tolerated. A city spokesperson declined to comment. The incident occurred during mass protests that rocked the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.