Former LA cop took multiple international flights after being charged with murder, court filings reveal
Former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor charged with murder in shooting of Brendon Glenn in 2015
A former cop who allegedly killed an unarmed homeless man was able to take multiple international flights while he had a warrant out for his arrest for murder, according to a report fromThe Los Angeles Times.
Clifford Proctor shot Brendon Glenn while on duty as a Los Angeles police officer in May 2015. Glenn, 29, was killed after Proctor and another officer, Jonathan Kawahara, responded to calls about the homeless man and his dog causing a disturbance at a Venice Beach bar. The officers attempted to arrest Glenn which resulted in a struggle before Proctor shot him twice in the back, authorities said. Glenn died in hospital.
Proctor’s defense attorneys said their client believed Glenn was reaching for his partner’s gun. In 2018, when Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to bring charges against Proctor, she explained that it was not unreasonable for Proctor to open fire based on that belief.
Former LAPD Chief Charlie Beck disagreed with the findings and publicly called for Proctor to be charged with a crime. The city’s police commission found the 2015 shooting to be unjustified.
Lacey was defeated in the 2020 election by George Gascón after her failure to prosecute police for fatal shootings and other on-duty uses of force sparked outrage and protests. After Gascón took office, he hired special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton to reexamine Lacey’s decisions in four use-of-force cases involving law enforcement officers, including Glenn’s killing.
Grand jury transcripts, unsealed last year, revealed that Kawahara said he did not believe Glenn was going for his gun. “I didn’t feel or see Mr. Glenn trying to disarm me,” Kawahara testified against his former partner.
On September 20, 2024, Proctor, who had resigned from the LAPD in 2017, was charged with second-degree murder.
However, an arrest warrant was not issued until October 3, 2024, because authorities needed “an opportunity to locate the defendant,” according to a transcript of the grand jury proceedings unsealed last year.
On October 2, 2024, Proctor flew to Trinidad, where he holds dual citizenship, according to court documents filed in November.
Proctor’s defense attorney Tom Yu said it was a “pre-planned vacation” and that he was not trying to escape justice.
Proctor was not arrested until October 2025 at Los Angeles International Airport by Customs and Border Protection agents.
The Los Angeles Times had previously reported that Proctor was arrested by CBP at LAX after arriving on an international flight. However, Yu claimed Proctor had remained in the U.S. for long periods and was preparing to leave the country at the time he was taken into custody, according to a November court filing.
Yu provided travel documents in the filing that show Proctor was scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to Panama City on October 16, 2025.
The defense attorney said his client was unaware he was wanted for murder until his arrest. Proctor has pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder.
“He was here in the U.S. What happened to all of 2025? He was here. Did they just let the year skip? Sorry, we forgot?” Yu wrote in the November filing, calling the failure to act “reckless.”
Greg Risling, from the LA County DA’s office, told The LA Times that investigators monitored Proctor’s home in Carson in October 2024 but by the time his arrest was authorized, Proctor was nowhere to be found.
Risling also confirmed that the DA’s office did not check up on Proctor’s Carson home or make any other attempts to arrest him before he was detained at LAX in October 2025.
“If we were aware of his location, he would’ve been taken into custody,” Risling said.
A CBP spokesman told The LA Times that agents encountered Proctor several times “at airports outside the state of California” after the indictment was handed down, but the terms of the warrant prevented them from making an arrest.
“The warrant was restricted to ‘in-state pick-up only’ and did not permit extradition to California,” they said.
Proctor was released from custody in November 2025 on $100,000 bail, and given permission by the judge to travel to Seattle, Washington for work.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to take the case to trial. Proctor is expected back in court next month.
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