Eulia Mae Love (commonly referred to as Eula Love) was a 39-year-old

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

mother and widow who was shot and killed on January 3, 1979, by officers of the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

. Although Love's death sparked outcry in

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown. It is de ...

, the Los Angeles County District Attorney exonerated both of the police officers involved in the shooting on April 17, 1979.

Death

Six months before the incident, Love's husband died of

sickle cell anemia Sickle cell disease (SCD), also simply called sickle cell, is a group of inherited haemoglobin-related blood disorders. The most common type is known as sickle cell anemia. Sickle cell anemia results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying ...

, leaving Love financially strapped and solely responsible for the care of their three young daughters. On the day of the shooting, Love had an altercation with a service person from the Southern California Gas company sent to her house to collect an overdue utility bill. After going to the store to cash a check to pay the bill, Love returned home to find additional personnel from the gas company, who had called the police on her. Further upset by the new utility workers, Love went into her house and came out with a knife. When police arrived, Love threatened the officers with a boning knife. In response, the two officers, Edward Hopson and Lloyd O'Callaghan, fired twelve shots at Love, striking her eight times at close range, killing her instantly. The officers alleged they shot her in

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

Aftermath

The killing generated widespread coverage in the local news media and sparked public outrage, which led the Los Angeles Police Commission to conduct its own investigation of the shooting."On January 3, 1979, two officers fatally shot Eula Love, an African-American woman, in a confrontation that received widespread publicity." Black Angelenos' confidence in the LAPD declined precipitously in 1979 due in part to this case, according to Allen John Scott's book ''The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century''. The report led to "significant reforms in the Department's procedures on use of force." The academic journal ''

Crime and Social Justice ''Social Justice'' is a quarterly Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1974 as ''Crime and Social Justice''. It absorbed ''Contemporary Marxism'' (1980–1986) in 1987 and adopted its current name in 1988. The journ ...

'' later reprinted the Police Commission's report on the circumstances of the shooting. Journal editors expressed the opinion that "her killing is a

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

." Journalist Joe Domanick (author of two books on the department) described Love's shooting as emblematic of the "bad old days" of the Los Angeles Police Department. Love's death has been cited as the event that put the phrase "

officer-involved shooting Copaganda (a portmanteau of ''Police, cop'' and ''propaganda)'' is propaganda efforts to shape public opinion about police or counter criticism of police and anti-police sentiment. The term is mostly used in the United States, though also in ot ...

" into widespread use by mainstream media outlets. This incident inspired the 1980

L.A. Rebellion The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in ...

feature film ''Gidget Meets Hondo'' by Bernard Nicolas.

References

External links

Eulia Love Story: Protest Flare Up
via UCLA Film/TV Archive
Eula Love
on Find A Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Eula 1979 in Los Angeles 1979 controversies in the United States 1979 deaths January 1979 in the United States African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in California Women deaths Police misconduct in the United States Los Angeles Police Department African-American-related controversies Deaths by person in Los Angeles Protests in California