Wave Staff and Wire Reports
HUNTINGTON PARK — Police officials released video Feb. 6 of the fatal shooting by officers of a double amputee who was suspected in an earlier stabbing and allegedly threatened officers with a knife, a shooting a member of a coalition against police abuse said was without justification.
The Jan. 26 shooting of Anthony Lowe, whose legs were both amputated and who used a wheelchair, has led to an outcry from his family, who questioned why officers could not subdue the man peacefully but instead shot him 11 times in the back.
Cell phone video of the shooting was previously posted online, but police released surveillance video showing three officers following Lowe, who was out of his wheelchair and hobbling away, but appears to turn back toward officers wielding a knife.
At a press conference Feb. 2 held by the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, Lowe’s family called for the prosecution of the officers who shot him, telling reporters they cannot understand how a disabled suspect posed enough of a threat to warrant lethal force.
Cliff Smith, an organizer with the coalition, said the L.A. County district attorney’s office “must criminally prosecute the officers involved. There’s just no justification for shooting this man.”
“These shootings are systemic in law enforcement generally,” he added.
The coalition and Lowe’s family members also held a demonstration outside the county Hall of Justice Feb. 3.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn tweeted Feb. 1 that she hopes the results of the probe “show that these officers could have and should have used different tactics in subduing this double amputee, who was armed with just a knife, besides resorting to shooting him in the back and killing him.”
Police said previously the 36-year-old Lowe ignored officers’ commands and “threatened to advance or throw the knife.” Officers twice used Tasers to try to subdue Lowe, to no avail, police said, adding that Lowe was armed with a 12-inch-long butcher knife.
Lowe, who lived in the neighborhood, was struck by gunfire in the upper torso and pronounced dead at the scene, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an initial statement.
Police said they originally responded to a stabbing call at 3:40 p.m. Jan. 26 in the 2400 block of Slauson Avenue. Upon their arrival, a man suffering a life-threatening stab wound told officers he was stabbed by a man in a wheelchair, according to the sheriff’s department.
Video released by police appears to capture that stabbing attack, which occurred on a sidewalk near a gas station. Lowe can be seen on the video, out of his wheelchair, lunging and slashing at the victim. Police said the victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Police also released a 911 call they received about the original stabbing.
Huntington Park Police Chief Cosme Lozano told reporters he was not offering any commentary on the video or the actions of officers, saying a complex investigation was continuing, and that the District Attorney’s Office will ultimately decide if the officers violated any laws.
Lowe’s family has already filed a damages claim against the department — a precursor to a lawsuit — on behalf of Lowe’s 15-year-old son.
Huntington Park police, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting, and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
Lowe’s family members said the decedent’s legs were amputated last year after an altercation with law enforcement in Texas.
