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A Los Angeles family is seeking answers and justice after their family member with amputated legs was fatally shot by California police Thursday, Jan. 26.
Anthony Lowe, 36, was seen in a video running
away from Huntington Park police officers on stumps with a 12″ butcher’s knife in his hand before being shot dead.According to the report, Huntington Park Police Officers were responding to a report about a male victim stabbed by a Black male adult in a wheelchair. After searching, officers encountered Lowe in his wheelchair near the 1900 block of Slauson Avenue, Huntington Park.
A police report read that Lowe attempted to throw the knife at the officers. The officers tased Lowe at least twice before an officer deployed his gun to fire, striking the 36-year-old in his upper torso.
The family is confused about why officers claimed Lowe attempted to throw the knife when the video showed him running away. Huntington Park Police Department Lt. Hugo Reynaga affirmed to the Los Angeles Times that Lowe didn’t throw the knife but “made the motion multiple times over his head like he was going to throw the knife.”
“He tried to run away, and every time he turned around and did the motion like he was gonna throw the knife at him, they tased him,” Reynaga said. “They were trying to give this guy the less-lethal taser shock. And because it was ineffective, they had to go to something that was more effective.”
Lowe’s family said that detectives hadn’t answered their mountain of questions, especially the main one about why the two officers at the scene saw Lowe, a man with amputated legs, as a threat.
“Something is not right with this situation,” Tatiana Jackson, one of Lowe’s sisters, said. “My daughter is 4, and she adores him. It’s going to break my heart to let her know. She dows not understand. She was looking for him, like, ‘Is he hiding from me?’ I can’t bring myself to tell her that he will never come back again.”
This wasn’t the first time Lowe had a violent run-in with police. Lowe’s legs were amputated last year after an altercation with law enforcement in Texas, another incident where the family has unanswered questions.
The officers involved were placed on paid leave. The alleged stabbed victim suffered a punctured lung and is hospitalized.