A Los Angeles Police Department Board of Rights recommended the firing of a detective who once fatally shot a fellow officer during a traffic dispute and more recently was accused of making racially charged comments at a training class about shooting black men, it was reported
Thursday.
The LA Weekly, citing an anonymous department source, reported on its website that the board has recommended the termination of Detective Frank Lyga.
The recommendation now moves to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who will decide whether to fire Lyga.
Lyga was assigned to home duty with pay in June.
LAPD internal affairs investigators opened an inquiry into the 57-year-old Lyga after a fellow officer filed a complaint against him for the comments he allegedly made while teaching a class at the department’s training academy, Cmdr. Andy Smith said this summer. The investigation has centered on an audio recording allegedly capturing Lyga’s comments to a training class.
A copy of the recording was released publicly by Jasmyne Cannick, a political consultant and writer. Cannick said the recording was made by a black officer who attended the class Lyga taught last November.
On the recording, a man gives a rambling, expletive-laden talk that revolves mostly around Lyga’s 1997 fatal shooting of Kevin Gaines, an off-duty LAPD officer. According to police accounts of the shooting, Lyga was working an undercover narcotics operation when he became involved in a traffic dispute with Gaines.
Apparently, neither man knew the other was a police officer. The shooting sparked racial tensions within the department because Gaines was black and Lyga is white.
In recounting the LAPD’s investigation into the shooting and the lawsuit Gaines’ family filed, the man on the recording complains he was unfairly labeled as “a racist killer.” He also recalled a confrontation he had with attorney Carl Douglas, who helped represent Gaines’ family in their lawsuit.
Douglas, the man said, asked him if he believed all “young black men” were gang members and if he regretted shooting Gaines, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“I said, `No. I regret he was alone in the truck at the time,”’ the man said he replied. “I could have killed a whole truckload of them and I would have been happy doing so.”
NBC4 reported that in a brief interview with Lyga, the detective acknowledged making the comments and expressed regret but claimed his words had been taken out of context.
