Family and friends of double-amputee Anthony Lowe have called for an investigation after he was fatally shot by police who responded to reports of a stabbing, CNN reports.
On Thursday in California, Huntington Park Police Department officers responded to reports of a stabbing. According to a police statement on the matter, officers found a victim at the scene suffering from “a life-threatening stab wound resulting in a collapsed lung and internal bleeding." When pressed for information, the victim said they were attacked by a wheelchair-bound Black man who “dismounted the wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation, and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12” butcher knife.” The attacker fled the scene as the victim was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. Police later found 36-year-old Lowe fitting the description of the alleged suspect.
According to the Huntington Park police, he ignored the commands of the responding officers and threatened to “advance or throw the knife.” Two Tasers were used on him in an attempt to subdue, but they were unsuccessful. “The suspect continued to threaten officers with the butcher knife, resulting in an officer-involved shooting," the police statement continued. Details on how many officers responded to the situation have not been made public.
The suspect was shot in the upper torso and pronounced dead at the scene. Officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, and an investigation has been launched by the Huntington Park Police Department, the sheriff’s department’s Homicide Bureau, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The initial Los Angeles sheriff’s department statement claimed that Lowe attempted to “throw the knife at the officer,” but in a later statement a spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that he “did not throw the knife ultimately, but he made the motion multiple times over his head like he was going to throw the knife.”
In a press conference on Monday, his family called for justice. “The way they killed my son, they murdered my son in a wheelchair with no legs,” said Dorothy Lowe, Anthony Lowe’s mother. “So they do need to do something about it, because I do want justice for my son.” The family did not address the allegation that Lowe was involved in the stabbing of a victim before the shooting. Regardless, they have argued the police used excessive force during the incident. “There can be no justification for killing Anthony, and we’re here to stand with his family and his community to fight for justice for Anthony,” added Coalition for Community Control Over the Police organizer Cliff Smith.
As Ebonique Simon explained, Lowe lost his legs in an incident approximately a year ago and was “dealing with a lot of depression.” The family is awaiting the results of an autopsy. “I’m heartbroken, and filled with anger and rage,” his sister Tatiana Jackson told the Guardian. “I just can’t understand why they would do that to someone in a wheelchair. I want somebody to explain to me what was the reason that you had to gun down a guy who has no legs.”
