Group Claims LAPD Officers Beat Homeless Black Woman

(CBS [HERE])  LOS ANGELES A group which monitors the Los Angeles Police Department Tuesday accused four officers of punching and kicking a petite homeless woman, dousing her in pepper spray and then carrying her hog-tied to a police car.

Peter White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network said that the beating happened on Sunday at about 2 p.m. in downtown Los Angeles. He said that the officers "brutalized a woman for about 10 minutes near the corner of Sixth and Stanford streets," just a few blocks from the LAPD's Central Station.

Sgt. James Canales of the Central Station confirmed that an incident occurred that was being investigated, but he would not provide details.

"An arrest investigation is being conducted, an administrative investigation is being conducted," he said.

White said the officers pounced on the African American woman who weighed less than 90 pounds and beat her with billy clubs, then doused her in pepper spray. They then hog-tied her, kicked and punched her, before carrying her by the hands and feet to a police car, White said.

"The officers could have easily restrained her and moved her on, but that's not what happened," White said. White did not know the woman's name.

White said the woman is "clearly a homeless resident with some mental disabilities, possibly addicted to something" who was known to downtown residents, although not by name.

"No one has seen her since," he said.

Officers walked up to her, screamed, 'hey you,' at which point she took off running, White said.

White said a group of people listening to jazz in nearby Gladys Park witnessed the beating. White said a public safety camera about a block away at Sixth Street and Towne Avenue "undoubtedly picked up some of what happened."