Long Beach man who uses insulin claims in lawsuit police thought he was using heroin

A Long Beach man living with diabetes has accused several police officers of roughing him up while under the mistaken impression that he was shooting up heroin when he was actually in the midst of using insulin.

Attoeys representing Miguel Angel Llamas, 67, of Long Beach, filed a lawsuit against Long Beach’s city govement and seven police officers on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Califoia.

The attoeys said in their complaint that on the moing of March 11, 2015, Llamas was injecting insulin while at a neighbor’s home in the 5300 block of Long Beach Blvd. The plaintiff also undergoes dialysis treatments, and had medical tubing used for those procedures attached to his arms at the time.

The suit states that several Long Beach officers, under the impression that he was using heroin, had a forceful encounter with him. As alleged in the filing, two officers approached Llamas while aiming guns in his direction before another officer grabbed Llamas by the arms. Llamas began to bleed after the medical tubing fell from his arms, and he hit his head after an officer forced his body against a wall, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint goes on to contend that officers handcuffed Llamas and forced him to wait inside a squad car for some 15 minutes without receiving any medical aid for his bleeding. He was released without being arrested or charged with breaking any laws.

Llamas’ attoeys are seeking damages for alleged civil violations including unreasonable search and seizure, excessive force and denial of medical care and unconstitutional practices.

A Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman referred a request for comment to the City Attoey’s office. A representative of that office said the city govement lawyers have yet to be served with the lawsuit.

Beverly Hills-based attoey Patrick McIntyre, one of the attoeys representing Llamas, said he does not comment on ongoing litigation.