LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s husband faces three misdemeanor charges for pulling a gun on Black Lives Matter-LA protesters who had gathered outside their home calling for her resignation in early March.
The California attorney general’s office charged David Allan Lacey, 66, on Monday with three counts of assault with a firearm, according to charging documents.
“At this time we are not going to comment on the facts of the case, except to say that my client’s human instinct is forever and always to protect his wife and his family and to keep them safe from physical harm,” Lacey’s attorney, Sam Tyre, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to all relevant facts coming to light.”
Protesters knocked on the Laceys’ front door shortly after 5:30 a.m. on March 2. It was the second time demonstrators had visited the house.
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David Lacey opened the door and pointed the weapon at those who were gathered outside, said Blacks Lives Matter-LA co-founder Melina Abdullah, a professor of pan-African studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
She described the experience as “traumatizing” and said she remembered asking herself whether “that’s how I’m going to go.”
Abdullah said Tuesday that she was “pleasantly surprised” to learn that the attorney general’s office had filed charges.
“What happened was just so outrageous and so egregious,” she said. “Even though we call for justice, we don’t expect justice. We have very little faith in the system.”
Jackie Lacey has described the experience as upsetting, saying in a statement that it “caused my family immense pain.”
“My husband acted in fear for my safety after we were subjected to months of harassment that included a death threat no less than a week earlier,” she said. “My husband felt that we were in danger and acted out of genuine concern for our well being.”
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Lacey, the county’s first Black district attorney, has been the target of Black Lives Matter protests for more than two years. Detractors accuse her of being too friendly with law enforcement and not prosecuting hundreds of so-called killer cops.
She is seeking re-election and fell shy during a March primary of getting enough votes to avoid a runoff in November. She will face former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, a longtime Los Angeles police commander who helped reshape the department following the Rampart corruption scandal of the late 1990s.
