LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council president is calling for an investigation after a video was released that appears to show police from neighboring Burbank dropping off a clearly distressed homeless man in front of the Los Angeles city council president’s office and then driving off in a car.
The video was released Friday by Council Speaker Paul Krekorian, who said it showed officers abandoning a “homeless man in great distress” on a North Hollywood sidewalk.
The video shows officers removing the shoeless man from the back of a police vehicle, after which he gets on his hands and knees with his head on the pavement before police drive off. The video then shows the man crawling along the sidewalk.
Krekorian played security camera footage at a press conference Friday and said he was “extremely outraged.”
He said there has long been suspicion that Los Angeles’ neighboring cities are “push[ing]homeless people into the city of Los Angeles” rather than providing care themselves.
“This individual was on the sidewalk and was clearly suffering from not only physical injuries but also psychological distress,” Krekorian said. “Burbank Police Department officers returned to their vehicle and drove back to Burbank without providing any assistance to this individual or checking to see if anyone was available to provide assistance to this individual.”
“They dumped him in North Hollywood,” Krekorian said.
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian discusses the Burbank Police Department’s actions, which were captured on video, during a meeting on Friday, June 7, 2024. Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Burbank is a separate city from Los Angeles, but it is right next to it and is almost completely surrounded by it.
Burbank Police Department responded to the scene around 8:45 a.m. after receiving a report of a nude man sitting at a bus stop near Burbank Hospital, but the man said he had left the hospital on his own before police arrived.
Police said the man asked to be taken to a subway station in North Hollywood and asked to be dropped off for coffee at a stop along the way.
“To assist the man in getting dressed, officers offered to give him a ride to his preferred location,” police said in a statement. After the man asked to be dropped off, “officers quickly complied,” police said.
Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank said in a statement that the incident occurred on public property near the hospital on Thursday morning, and that among the calls police received was a hospital security guard “requesting assistance for an individual who appeared to be in distress on a city sidewalk.”
Los Angeles has long grappled with homelessness, a major focus for new Mayor Karen Bass, and Krekorian said the city spends $1 billion a year to help its homeless population, while neighboring cities do much less.
Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian released a video showing Burbank Police Department officers dropping off an injured and disoriented homeless man in front of Krekorian’s North Hollywood district office. Hans Gutknecht/MediaNewsGroup/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
“The City of Burbank takes seriously the concerns raised by Los Angeles City Council Member Paul Krekorian,” Burbank Mayor Nick Schultz said in a statement to X.
Krekorian said the video, recorded Thursday morning, was caught on security cameras in the building that houses Krekorian’s city council offices, and that building management contacted Krekorian’s office later that day.
Krekorian said after his office became aware of the video on Thursday, they drove around looking for the man, eventually finding him and providing him with medical treatment through the Los Angeles Fire Department.
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Krekorian said the man told staff he thought he had broken his leg and went to see a doctor.
The man reportedly told staff he had recently become homeless outside of Los Angeles.
There are an estimated 46,260 homeless people in Los Angeles, according to the city’s annual homeless census, conducted last year. There are an estimated 75,518 homeless people in the city and Los Angeles County, according to the census.
Krekorian said he filed a motion Friday calling for an investigation with the Los Angeles City Attorney, Los Angeles County District Attorney and state Attorney General. He also said he would call on Burbank’s mayor to investigate and make efforts to “consider policy changes to avoid egregious situations like this.”
He described the actions captured on the video as “callous, cruel, inhumane and fundamentally irresponsible.”
“As a human being, I am outraged by this and I will continue to be outraged by it,” Krekorian said.
Krekorian said officers “literally dumped him on the sidewalk to fend for himself” against an extremely vulnerable individual.
“It’s a disgrace,” he said.
Burbank police said they are investigating the incident, including the actions of the officers involved.
“The Burbank Police Department remains committed to treating our homeless community with compassion and respect, and we thank Los Angeles City Council Speaker Paul Krekorian for bringing this issue to our attention,” the department said.