Dodgers fan celebrating World Series partially blinded by police projectile, suit says
A Los Angeles Dodgers fan is suing the city after he says an impromptu World Series celebration went wrong and he was left with permanent damage to his eye.
The lawsuit filed Feb. 21 says the Los Angeles Police Department used “unlawful” force against Isaac Castellanos following the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series victory.
The city of Los Angeles and LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
Castellanos, a 22-year-old senior at California State University at the time, was a professional esports streamer and athlete, the lawsuit says.
On the evening of Oct. 27, 2020, the lawsuit says a “peaceful” celebration by Castellanos, his friends and hundreds of other fans turned into a “violent nightmare” due to the city’s tactics to control the crowd.
According to Castellanos, the use of supposed “less lethal” projectiles by police ended in him suffering permanent damage to his right eye.
The lawsuit looks to hold Los Angeles and police officials accountable for what it calls their “unconstitutional conduct.”
“The City of Los Angeles has repeatedly failed to provide adequate training for crowd control and dispersal, including the use of rubber bullets and other ‘less-lethal’ munitions,” attorney Monique Alarcon said in a news release. “This failure placed our client at great risk of serious injury, and it will continue to put countless others at risk until the city takes long-overdue steps to correct the problem.”
Castellanos and friends were peacefully celebrating just after midnight when LAPD officers approached the crowd, the lawsuit says.
Then, the college student heard weapons fired and people screaming. Castellanos turned to grab his friends and was struck in his eye by one of the projectiles used by officers, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, Castellanos felt “excruciating pain and experienced a loss of vision” immediately after being hit.
He and his friends left the area, but Castellanos says he never heard officers order the celebrators to leave.
A couple of hours later, Castellanos was taken to the emergency room for treatment of the “traumatic injury to his eye,” according to the lawsuit.
After multiple appointments and visits over the next few months, he was told the central vision loss he experienced would be permanent, the lawsuit says.
According to the complaint, Castellanos has continuously experienced poor depth perception that has caused emotional and physical distress to aspects of his life, including studying, working and athletic activities.
Castellanos told the Los Angeles Times that he experiences vision loss in the “direct middle” of his eye.
“Only a few weeks before the incident, (Castellanos) won a prominent gaming tournament, which was only the beginning of what would be a bright and lucrative future in esports,” the complaint says.
Since the incident, Castellanos has not been able to identify the LAPD officer who hit him with the projectile, the lawsuit says.
Los Angeles police said at the time that they were responding to vandalism and unruly behavior during the celebration.
“Right now we are embarrassing ourselves, in a sports celebration, across the world,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said, the Los Angeles Times reported. “The story is not that the Dodgers won. The story is the vandalism, the looting and how the celebration was taken over by thugs.”
The lawsuit is seeking payment for physical, mental and emotional damages.
“There is absolutely no reason for the police to fire rubber bullets at people peacefully celebrating,” attorney Pedram Esfandiary said in the release. “Our client posed no threat to anyone, yet officers decided to indiscriminately shoot at him and others without giving any noticeable warning and without telling people to leave the area.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Dodgers fan celebrating World Series partially blinded by police projectile, suit says."
