A Double Amputee Was Shot and Killed by the LAPD
Last year, Anthony Lowe had his legs amputated after an incident with Texas police. This year, Lowe lost his life while trying to flee in his wheelchair from Los Angeles police. According to the Los Angeles Times, there’s conflicting stories about whether Lowe was a threat to the police at the time of the shooting.
The Los Angeles sheriff’s department says Huntington Park police responded to a stabbing at the park by a suspect in a wheelchair. The cops attempted to detain Lowe when authorities say he pulled out a 12 inch butcher knife and swung it at the officers. Lowe was Tased twice but it was ineffective and, after being swung at again, the officers shot him in his upper torso. After the paramedics arrived, Lowe was pronounced dead at the scene.
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However, the video of the incident suggests to Lowe’s family that the typical self-defense stance of the officers may not stick. They called this a plain act of murder.
Watch a clip of the incident via Twitter. Viewer discretion advised:
Huntington Park, California police officers shoot dead Anthony Lowe Jr, a double amputee man who tried to run away from them on the stumps of his legs. The cops said they were afraid Lowe would throw the knife he had at them. pic.twitter.com/y4FjqED4Hy
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 31, 2023
Read more from the LA Times:
In the video, he appears to have just dismounted from a nearby wheelchair. As he scrambled down the sidewalk away from the uniformed officers, two police sport utility vehicles drove into the frame and parked, blocking the camera’s view.
The video, which was posted on Twitter on Saturday, then abruptly ends; no footage of the ensuing gunfire has been released.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide unit is investigating Lowe’s shooting, as it typically does for all shootings involving Huntington Park Police Department officers, according to the unit’s Lt. Hugo Reynaga.
Reynaga said two officers fired at Lowe “somewhere around 10 times. ... We recovered 10 or 11 casings at the scene. I don’t know which of those actually hit him.”
The police officers involved have been placed on paid leave upon the department’s investigation.
You know, when I came across the “swinging knife” piece of this incident, I was thinking Lowe almost drew some blood. Seeing the officers a safe distance away from him explains why his family is scrutinizing the officers for their actions and prompts the question, was he a threat at the time of the shooting?
We’ve barely gotten past the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols. Now this.
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