FAMILY OF WOMAN HURT IN PROTEST CONDEMNS RESPONSE
La Mesan struck in head by an apparent bean-bag round
Frustrated by what she said were too many killings by police, Leslie Furcron was live on Facebook when she was shot in her forehead with what appeared to be a bean-bag round during Saturday’s protest outside the La Mesa police station.
The La Mesa resident, a 59-year-old black woman and mother of four, had joined the protest about five minutes earlier as dusk approached.
On Tuesday, her family said she had came out of a medically induced coma and was intubated, showing signs of recovery during her hospitalization in an ICU.
The shot to her head, also captured in other videos and photos that went viral, has become a case in point for community members who have decried at-times aggressive police tactics used to control local protests in the wake of last week’s in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
For some community members, particularly in the black community, what happened to Furcron reinforces the anger they feel over instances of police brutality.
On Tuesday, an attorney representing the woman’s family called for the officer who shot the round to be identified, fired and charged with a felony. Standing outside La Mesa City Hall and f lanked by two of Furcron’s sons, attorney Dante Pride condemned the person who fired the shot.
“That’s an attempted murder,” he said.
He added that police did not send for an ambulance; bystanders took Furcron to a hospital.
Pride and Furcron’s family members believe the shot was fired by a La Mesa police officer, in part because sheriff ’s deputies had been seen using tear gas in the moments leading up to the shooting.
A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Tuesday that the incident did not involve a sheriff ’s deputy and directed questions to the La Mesa Police Department, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Pride said Furcron had been protesting peacefully, holding a soda can with one hand and her phone with the other as she streamed the protest live on Facebook.
“I’ve already seen dozens of videos, and I have yet to see Ms. Furcron do anything improper or illegal,” Pride said. “And that’s because she didn’t.”
He questioned the police response to a protest that began peacefully.
“Some people were violent, yes, but the majority were not,” he said. “And our police officer solution is to shoot into the crowd? We cannot have this any more.”
He added that officers are trained to aim less-lethal rounds below the waist. Shots “above the chest, in the head, can be fatal,” he said.
The reason Furcron showed up to protest is personal: She lost a son in February in an incident family members described as police-related.
“The way he died, the police had something to do with it,” Ahmad Furcron, 41, said of his brother’s death. The death did not occur in police custody or in the San Diego area, but the family did not give other details.
“I know that hurt her deeply, and so that’s what made her even gather the strength,” Azim Furcron, 26, said of his mother’s participation in the recent protest. “She wanted to be part of this, and she wanted to be part of the change, because of situations that happened to him.”
The 17-minute video posted to Furcron’s Facebook account begins as she is driving around with others as the sun sets. About 5:30 minutes in, she parks her car and gets out.
“I wanna see, too, ’cause I’m a mad mother (expletive) mother myself,” she says. She repeatedly calls police “murderers” as she walks past a line of law enforcement officers at the police station.
About 10:30 minutes into the video, or about five minutes after she took to the streets, she is shot — just after she had turned the camera on herself. She falls and goes silent.
Bystanders yell for help frantically.
“Oh my God. Oh my God,” a female voice says.
“We need help. We need help. Please,” another voice says. “Come as fast as you can. Help us. She got hit. Please ...”
As other bystanders appear to get close, they become hysterical, too. A bystander picks up the phone and the feed goes dark for the duration of the remaining video, about seven minutes.
Azim Furcron described his mother as a wonderful source of energy and joy. “She’s one of the strongest people I know,” he said.
Pride said Furcron faces a long recovery from the wound she suffered. He said she may lose an an eye.
Her family has not been able to visit her at the hospital because of visitor restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their only contact has been over Facetime, Pride said. Her family set up a Gofundme page to raise funds for medical and attorney expenses.
david.hernandez@ sduniontribune.com