Timothy Colomey said his fellow Los Angeles police officers had a nickname for him after he transferred out of SWAT: “Top Rope.” It was a reference to a professional wrestler flinging himself from the top rope of a ring and flooring his opponent, Colomey said. In one incident recounted by multiple witnesses, one of the unit’s two lieutenants, Chester “Lee” …
A whistleblower’s lawsuit alleges the LAPD’s vaunted tactical unit was run by a “SWAT Mafia” of influential veteran cops who encouraged the use of deadly force. In 2022, former Chief Michel Moore ordered an internal review of SWAT operations after one officer was caught on video saying “happy hunting” to fellow officers before the team fatally shot a suspect downtown. …
As members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team prepared to confront an armed suspect who had holed up in a downtown apartment building earlier this month, one of the highly trained officers offered a comment to the others. “Gallows humor or otherwise, it doesn’t have a place.” The officer made the remark on the morning of May 3, …
A longtime Los Angeles police SWAT sergeant is suing the LAPD, alleging the unit is run by a “SWAT Mafia” of veteran cops who encourage the use of deadly force and ostracized him for revealing its behavior. Colomey said in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that those leaders, who dubbed themselves the “SWAT Mafia,” “glamorize …
