Welcome to L.A. TACO’s weekly Investigations Newsletter, I’m Lexis-Olivier Ray, the Head of Investigations for L.A. TACO.
After a year of tremendous loss, Pablo Vera finally had something to celebrate when the Lakers won their 17th NBA title on October 11, 2020, nearly a year after Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the nine people tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.
A lifelong Laker fan, Vera went out that night to take in the historic victory and document the events that unfolded.
At around 9 p.m. that night, Vera was standing on 12th Street in Downtown, near what was then known as the Staples Center (RIP), when LAPD Officer Alexander Alvarez allegedly struck him with a Japanese wooden sword known as a “bokken,” breaking his arm.
At the time, Alvarez was assigned to the LAPD’s infamous Mounted Unit, a team of around 35 sworn officers and 40 horses that generally respond to crowd-control situations and special events. In March of this year, Alvarez was captured in a viral video that I recorded, knocking over a protester during a No Kings Day protest in Downtown.