In a civil rights case that signals a reckoning over police crowd-control tactics, a federal jury has awarded $11.8 million to a Dodgers fan permanently blinded in one eye by LAPD projectiles. The outcome delivers a sharp rebuke of so-called "less-lethal" crowd-control tactics, according to Wisner Baum partners who tried the case.
LOS ANGELES, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- In a decisive rebuke of police crowd-control practices, a federal jury has awarded $11.8 million to Isaac Castellanos, who was permanently blinded in one eye by a police-fired rubber bullet. The incident happened when Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers fired a so-called "less-lethal" 37mm kinetic impact round toward a crowd celebrating the Dodgers' 2020 World Series victory in downtown Los Angeles. At the time of the incident, Castellanos was a 22-year-old college student and competitive gamer.
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