Some people faced swift consequences when Adrian Abela was shot in the back, face-down, at an auto body shop in L.A in October 2021. But the L.A. County sheriff's deputy who pulled the trigger hasn't faced such quick action. Abelar, 27, suffered multiple fractured vertebrae and woke up in a hospital bed. The bullet narrowly missed his spine, according to his lawyer, who said he could have easily been paralyzed or killed. The shop owner, Richard Doktor, says his business suffered after the sheriff’s department released information that made it clear he was the person who called police. But more than two years later, the question of what, if anything, will happen to the deputy who shot Abelar, remains unanswered, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Body camera footage shows Abelar being shot by Deputy Yen Liu while lying face-down on the pavement after he attempted to discard a handgun and run away from L.A. County sheriff’s deputies. Abelar survived the incident and filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging his civil rights were violated. The sheriff’s department turned over its investigation to L.A. County prosecutors earlier this month. Two officials inside the district attorney’s office described the sheriff’s probe as taking an unusually long time. Some officials became concerned when Abelar’s civil attorney, Thomas Beck, alerted them to the facts of the case in mid-October and they learned it had yet to be presented for potential prosecution. The office has increasingly filed charges against police officers accused of using excessive force since Dist. Atty. George Gascón took over in 2020.
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