A former Los Angeles Police Department officer has been indicted in the murder of a homeless man in Venice. NBC4 Investigates’ Eric Leonard reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026.
A grand jury indictment was unsealed Monday against former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor, who was previously charged with murder for the 2015 on-duty killing of Brenden Glenn outside a bar in Venice.
The indictment alleges Proctor personally used a gun to kill Glenn. The shooting of the homeless man followed a dispute non the Venice Beach boardwalk in the seaside Los Angeles County community.
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After the indictment was unsealed, the judge allowed Proctor to post bail, and ordered him to return to court next month for a pretrial hearing.
Proctor had been initially investigated by then-LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacey in 2018, but the prosecutor's office declined to pursue charges against Proctor, citing "insufficient evidence." Then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had recommended that Proctor be charged with a crime as the police department’s own investigation determined Proctor shot Glenn twice in the stomach then in the back.
In 2024, former District Attorney George Gascon, who ousted Lacey and ran for the DA’s office on the platform of tougher regulations for law enforcement, decided to charge Proctor.
The murder charge was dismissed by a judge earlier this year.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who defeated Gascon in the November 2024 election, opposed the defense motion to dismiss the case.
Proctor and his partner responded May 5, 2015 to an area near the beach boardwalk, where and intoxicated Glenn had been blocking the sidewalk, according to prosecutors. As officers tried to arrest Glenn, Proctor opened fire and fatally shot him with without legal justification, the DA's office said.
The prosecutor's office said there was no evidence of aggression by the unarmed Glenn. After the shooting, Proctor asked a witness to back a false narrative about the altercation, according to the DA's office.
In granting the defense motion to dismiss the murder charge in June, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found that former special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton had failed to present the grand jury with "exculpatory evidence" -- evidence the prosecutors must share that might clear a defendant or create reasonable doubt.
Proctor's attorney, Tom Yu, said at the time, "I'm grateful that the court did the right thing… Any kind of suggestion that this was a murder indictment was nonsensical and not supported by the law."
