Anthony Lowe, a wheelchair-bound man with double legs amputated, was shot and killed by Huntington Park Police officers after he threatened them with a 12-inch meat cleaver after injuring a man.
Lowe died at the scene after being fatally wounded by police officers. Now his family and his community are suing prosecutor George Gascon and prosecutor Rob Bonta to file criminal charges against the police officers who took his life.
The incident occurred on Thursday, January 26 in the city of Huntington Park in Los Angeles County.
According to a Huntington Park police statement, the officers tried to control Lowe with their stun weapons, but claimed that when he tried to throw the knife at them, they opened fire.
The videos show 36-year-old Anthony with a knife in his hand, who leaves his wheelchair and begins to run on his knees while at least 5 police officers point their guns at him.
While the investigation is ongoing, the officers involved in the incident that ended Anthony’s life have been removed from their posts and placed on administrative leave. Investigations were handled by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
“We are asking County Attorney George Gascón and State’s Attorney Rob Bonta that the officers involved receive criminal charges,” said Cliff Smith, a member of the Coalition for Community Control over the Police.
He pointed out that police brutality will continue as long as the community does not take control of the police and a civil committee manages it to the police.
The Coalition for Community Control over the Police held a march and press conference on Sunday, January 29, outside the Huntington Park Police Department to condemn Anthony’s death as an example of police brutality.
“Anthony was a male double amputee and posed no threat to officers. There is no justification for the use of deadly force and killer cops should be criminally prosecuted,” she wrote the Coalition for Community Control over the Police on his Facebook page, prior to the event with the press.
At the conference, Anthony’s family and the community present demanded that prosecutor George Gascon and prosecutor Rob Bonta criminally prosecute the police officers involved.
“If you are here to protect and serve us, protect us. Don’t kill us,” cried Jonathan Longmire, Anthony’s nephew.
According to the family, Lowe’s legs were amputated starting at the knee; and he was going through a mental health crisis when he was fatally shot by the police.
Her cousin Ellakeyada Gorum, sobbing at the press conference, said that it’s sad when cops get away with killing African-American people.
“He was in a wheelchair. What else could he do? You (police officers) know that their lives were not in danger. He was running with his limbs. How cold-hearted they can be.”
Dorothy Lowe, Anthony’s mother, said devastated that her son who was in a wheelchair without legs was murdered. “They didn’t need to do something like that.”
The murders of people at the hands of the police are a very recurring picture throughout the country. Between January 2 and 3, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were involved in the deaths of three unarmed individuals. These were three separate incidents in which excessive police force appeared to have been used.
Keenan Anderson, Shameka Smith and Óscar León Sánchez were facing mental health problems when they died at the hands of LAPD officers.
The most recent dramatic case is the murder of Tire Nichols, a 29-year-old African American, who died three days after being beaten by 5 Memphis police officers.
According to the Statista.com website, as of December 20, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States appeared to be increasing, with a total of 1,060 civilians being shot, 220 of whom were African-American.
Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings against African Americans was much higher than that of any other ethnicity, standing at 5.9 fatal shootings per million population per year between 2015 and December 2022.
In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, police brutality has become a hot topic in the United States.
Among minorities, Latinos rank second only to African Americans in the rate of murders committed by police in the nation.
A report revealed in 2021 by UnitedUSrevealed that between May 2014 and May 2021, 2,600 Latinos died, killed by police or while in custody.