A Los Angeles city councilman furiously criticized Burbank police after surveillance video showed two officers dumping a homeless man outside his field office Thursday.
“I am extremely livid today,” said Councilman Paul Krekorian.
After reaching the curb on Lankershim Boulevard near Weddington Street in North Hollywood, the officers untied the man after he got out of the backseat. Then the man fell to his knees as the officers drove away. Krekorian said the man appeared to be having a mental health crisis.
“Without offering this person any assistance,” he said. ‘Without determining whether there was anyone who could provide services to this person. They dumped him in North Hollywood.”
Krekorian staff tracked the man down about seven hours after he was abandoned. He told them he was homeless and had a broken leg.
“To take someone at this moment of maximum vulnerability – someone seeking medical attention and then literally dump them on a sidewalk to fend for themselves. It’s a shame,” Krekorian said.
Krekorian did not release the man’s name but believed the man had been at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center Burbank. Hospital officials said there were “multiple calls to police, including one from a hospital security guard seeking help for a person on the city sidewalk who appeared to be in distress.”
The man was left outside a building that houses Kaiser Permanente’s medical offices and Krekorian’s North Hollywood office.
“This is callous, cruel, inhumane and also fundamentally irresponsible,” Krekorian said.
Krekorian said he is contacting local and state officials to see if legal action can be taken. He also wrote a letter to Burbank’s mayor and plans to talk to him.
“We do not take this concern lightly, as the City of Burbank’s top priority is to provide our unhoused residents with the support and resources needed to transition from the streets to stable and safe living conditions,” said Mayor Nick Schultz of Burbank.
After the video surfaced, Burbank police said their officers found the man after people reported seeing a naked person sitting at a bus stop outside the hospital. When officers arrived, they found the man lucid and communicative and offered him clothing, the department said.
The man refused to accept the clothes because he had his own and eventually got dressed after a brief conversation.
The officers offered to help him as he said he was homeless and from the Sunland-Tujunga area. He told officers he suffered the leg injury many years ago and voluntarily left the hospital. He also refused any medical services, according to the department.
The officers offered to take him anywhere he wanted, and he eventually agreed to be dropped off at the Metro B (Red) Line in North Hollywood.
While he was heading there, the man asked the officers to drop him off so he could get some coffee in the 5200 block of Lankershim Boulevard.
The department promised to investigate the incident.
Jeff Nguyen
