Damien Smith was driving to his Hollywood apartment one night in 2021, looking forward to resting for a few hours before catching a morning flight to act in his next film. Smith, an actor and director, had spent the day working on a documentary about police brutality before attending a friend’s house party in Hollywood Hills.
When Smith got back home, however, he saw someone inside. Smith said the intruder had stuffed his belongings — jewelry, computers, hard drives and film tape — into bags. Smith tussled with the man, pulling him to the ground, and called 911.
But when officers arrived, they pointed Tasers at Smith, not the intruder, and told him to get on the ground, according to a lawsuit. Smith told them that he lived there, but officers still discharged their Tasers at Smith about three times a few seconds later, the lawsuit claims.
Smith, who is Black, recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, the police chief and the responding officers. He claims he was racially profiled and wrongfully attacked, causing him injuries, embarrassment and anxiety.
“When they came in and treated me like that, it’s like they stripped me of all humanity because they didn’t see me as a human being,” Smith told The Washington Post.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman declined to comment, and the city’s attorney didn’t respond to a request. The police department declined to provide records about the incident, citing the pending litigation.
Smith first filed the lawsuit in December in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California but refiled it last month after a paperwork issue halted the case from moving forward the first time around.
The defendants have denied Smith’s allegations in court records, saying any force used against Smith was “necessary for self-defense.”
Smith produces and acts in movies and TV shows that explore issues faced by Black Americans. He directed “Target: St. Louis Vol. 1,” a 2021 documentary exploring accusations that the U.S. military tested chemicals on predominantly Black St. Louis residents in the 1950s and 1960s. He has played characters in “Snowfall,” a show about Los Angeles’s cocaine outbreak in the 1980s, and “Emancipation,” a movie about an enslaved person on the run.
In the fall of 2021, Smith was producing a documentary called “Searching for Officer Friendly,” which explores the militarization of U.S. police forces. It was while he was working on the project that Smith returned to his apartment around 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2021, and saw the intruder walking out of his bedroom, the lawsuit claims.
Smith grabbed a camping knife, charged the intruder and sliced his hand, said Smith’s attorney, Milton Grimes. The intruder stayed on the ground until officers approached the apartment’s back door around 1:30 a.m., Grimes said.
Smith was still holding the knife but dropped it when officers asked him to, Grimes said. Still, officers used a Taser on Smith and struck him on his chest and back, the lawsuit alleged. Smith said he fell onto his bike in his living room before officers handcuffed him. The intruder jumped from the ground and ran to Smith’s bedroom, Smith said.
Police officers placed Smith inside the back of a police car on the street as Smith’s neighbors told police that they had detained the wrong person, the lawsuit said. Smith said he was released about 20 minutes later after officers confirmed he lived at the address. He wasn’t charged with any crimes.
“It just threw me through a shock, and it really just blew my mind,” Smith said. “I’m still trying to really get back to center from that.”
After police realized the mix-up, they arrested Demani Coats at Smith’s apartment. He was convicted of burglary in July 2022, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Smith said he didn’t sleep that night. He drove to Los Angeles International Airport for his 5 a.m. flight to Louisiana, where he acted as a sergeant in “Emancipation.” His role required him to hold an American flag, which he said felt strange after his police encounter.
Smith said he has since stalled production for “Searching for Officer Friendly” because thinking about police trigger memories from that night. He said that he feels anxious when he encounters a police officer and that his chest and back remain stiff after having a Taser used on him.
Grimes, who also represented Rodney King after Los Angeles police officers attacked him in 1991, said his client might need years to recover.
“Most of us who have not had that experience don’t fully understand the severity of it,” Grimes said. “The psychological part of that is a long time lasting.”