In Southern California, a man who uses a wheelchair was shot by police after trying to flee the scene. Videos from witnesses of the incident have some investigating the case wondering if the police implemented excessive force.
On Jan. 26, Huntington Park police officers responded to a call that a Black man in a wheelchair had allegedly stabbed a man and fled the scene. When police encountered Anthony Lowe, who is a double amputee and uses a wheelchair, he had a knife and officers tried tasing him to subdue him.
After the tasing had seemingly little effect, police said that Lowe was waving a knife in the air, and they were concerned he was going to throw the knife. When Lowe got off of his wheelchair and started to flee, officers fired 10 to 11 shots, killing Lowe at the scene, The Los Angeles Times reported.
What was on video between Anthony Lowe and Huntington Police?
According to CNN, some bystander witnesses recorded what happened between Lowe and the police. In one of the videos, police are seen pointing guns at Lowe, and “Lowe then appears to move himself in the opposite direction, holding something shiny in his hands.” Police continued pursuing him, but a police car ends up obstructing the view of the shooting. Huntington Park police do not wear body cameras.
“He’s out of his wheelchair, he’s amputated in both legs at the knee, and he’s moving away from the officers,” Cliff Smith, of the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, told ABC7.
Huntington Park police told the LA Times the officers were put on leave “for a few days” and would be placed on desk duty until getting approval to return to the field.
“We just don’t understand. The police are here to protect and serve and to help our community and yet they’re hurting individuals in wheelchairs,” Jonathan Longmire, Lowe’s cousin told KTLA.
Who was Anthony Lowe?
Lowe was 36 years old and had two children. He was one of eight siblings in a “tight-knit” family and had his legs amputated a year ago, and “had been struggling recently” because of it, The Guardian reported.
“The way they killed my son, they murdered my son in a wheelchair with no legs,” Dorothy Lowe, Anthony Lowe’s mother, said at a news conference, per CNN. “So they do need to do something about it, because I do I want justice for my son.”