LOS ANGELES — The death of a double amputee wielding a large knife who was shot by police in Huntington Park, California, has sparked a national outcry against the use of force on a disabled person.
Police say Anthony Lowe, a Black man who lost both his legs last year and had not yet received prosthetics, stabbed a person on Jan. 26 before they tasered and shot him about 10 times throughout his upper body.
But Lowe’s family questioned why it was necessary to kill a man who needed a wheelchair to get around.
“I want to achieve truth and justice because if anybody else would have shot Anthony, with him being a disabled person, they would be in jail now for murder,” said Ebonique Simon, the mother of Lowe’s 15-year-old son. “They wouldn’t be out taking leave with pay.”
Lt. Hugo Reynaga of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide unit, which typically investigates officer shootings involving Huntington Park police, said the stabbing victim was a 46-year-old man who is in stable condition in a hospital, awaiting surgery. A police report on the incident was being prepared by the Huntington Park Police Department, Reynaga said Wednesday.
Huntington Park police declined to comment on Lowe’s death or say what transpired before the encounter between Lowe and officers because the shooting is under investigation.
The officers involved in Lowe’s death, who have not been publicly identified, have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, according to a statement by the Huntington Park Police Department.
Lowe’s relatives told NBC News they have been given inconsistent information since learning of his death. Police told the family they had assumed Lowe was homeless, but he had been living with his mother after losing both legs, the family said. They were also told Lowe charged at police with a knife, but a witness’ statement did not appear to support that, Simon said.
“The whole world has seen that video now, and that’s not what happened,” she said. “I don’t even want my son to pick up his phone. I don’t want him to see the videos.”
Grainy cellphone video shared on Twitter shows Lowe, whose legs were amputated at the knees, leaving the wheelchair behind and scrambling along the sidewalk followed by officers with their guns drawn. The shooting is not seen in the video, and it does not show what led to the police encounter with Lowe.
The Huntington Park Police Department said in a statement that officers responded to a report of a stabbing victim on the afternoon of Jan. 26. The victim, who had suffered a collapsed lung and internal bleeding, described the alleged assailant as a Black man in a wheelchair, the police said.
“The suspect dismounted his wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation, and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12” butcher knife,” the police said in the statement. “The suspect then ran back to the wheelchair and fled the scene in the wheelchair.”
Officers later found Lowe nearby carrying a large knife and ignoring their commands, according to the statement. He “threatened to advance or throw the knife” at police, who deployed two separate Tasers in an attempt to subdue him, the statement said. When that didn’t work, Lowe was shot and died on the sidewalk, it said.
His family was not notified until the next morning, relatives said, even though Lowe was carrying identification with his mother’s address when he died.
Ed Obayashi, a national policing expert specializing in use-of-force investigations, who has watched the video on social media, said to justify a shooting, officers must show they had been under immediate threat and had considered reasonable alternatives, including using a Taser.
“But here we see an individual that, by definition, appears to be physically incapable of resisting officers,” he said.” Even if he is armed with a knife, his mobility is severely restricted.
“He’s an amputee. He appears to be at a distinct physical disadvantage, lessening the apparent threat to officers.”
Lowe’s older sister, Yatoya Toy, said her brother was scared of law enforcement and likely fled in fear, much like Keenan Anderson, a Black man who cried out, “They’re trying to George Floyd me!” during an altercation with Los Angeles police officers earlier this month.
“George Floyd’s murder really affected him,” Toy said about her brother. “All this police brutality is why he ran. He feared for his life. He was terrified.”
Anderson died after being tased six times following a traffic incident in Venice Beach. His death on Jan. 3 occurred just hours before Los Angeles police shot and killed Oscar Leon Sanchez, who was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of his death, according to relatives.
Both the Anderson and Sanchez families have filed claims against the city of Los Angeles, which has 45 days to respond and previously declined to comment on the matter. Lowe’s family says it intends to do the same against the city of Huntington Park and its police department.
Relatives described Lowe as a loving father and brother who never missed his son’s football games and who had once enjoyed dancing.
He was the third of eight siblings and had been living with his mother after losing both legs last year in an incident involving Texas police, family members said. They said they never learned the details of the encounter, what city it occurred in or what led to Lowe losing his legs.
He had been scheduled to pick up his prosthetics next Monday.
Source: NBC News
