The Los Angeles Police Department says that a father and English teacher who was 31 years old died last week from cardiac arrest after being tased multiple times by Police. This is the third death in the city this year that a police officer caused.
Keenan Anderson is the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. In a news release from last week, The police said that they met him on January 3 at the scene of a car accident in the neighbourhood of Venice in Los Angeles.
As the Police tried to arrest Anderson, they shocked him more than once, as shown by edited footage from a body camera. Anderson was arrested and taken to a nearby hospital, where Police say he went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead.
Masha Ashton, the school’s founder, said in a statement that Anderson taught English to tenth graders at the Digital Pioneers Academy in Washington, DC. Ashton noted that Anderson went to Los Angeles during the winter break to see his family.
Police said that detectives from the department’s Force Investigation Division went to where Anderson was arrested for looking into the use of force. They explained in the video that any death of a person in their custody is considered a “categorical” use of force, according to the department’s policy.
So far this year, the Los Angeles police are also looking into the deaths of Takar Smith, 45, and Oscar Sanchez, 35, who were shot and killed by Police. They have released videos of both of these events.
What the video shows
Police said that when they went to a car accident on January 3 in the afternoon, Anderson was “running in the middle of the street and acting strangely.” On the video from one officer’s body camera, which Police released after editing, a woman at the scene of the accident says, “I think that guy up there needs help though, because he’s trying to run away.”
Anderson’s body camera video shows that he first stopped and talked to an officer. Then the video cuts to a text screen that says Anderson “tried to run away.”
When the video starts up again, As the officer chases him, Anderson is seen jogging into the street. The officer catches up to Anderson at a busy intersection and tells him to lie on his stomach.
Anderson doesn’t seem to obey right away, so two other officers put him on his stomach in the street while telling him to “chill out.” Anderson can be heard yelling, “Help! They’re trying to kill me!” and “Please, don’t do this” as police officers fight on top of him.
In a video from another officer who came to help, an officer can be heard telling Anderson repeatedly to stop resisting and turn over. The officer also threatens to tase Anderson several times.
Anderson says, “They’re trying to George Floyd me”, as officers try to roll him over onto his stomach.
Then, an officer shocks Anderson with a taser more than once, and Anderson says, “I’m not fighting back.”
The video shows that the officers eventually put Anderson in handcuffs and put ankle hobbles on him.
Later in the video, Anderson seems to be awake when the Los Angeles Fire Department puts him on a gurney next to an ambulance. In the news release, the Police say that the fire department at the scene treated Anderson before being taken to a nearby hospital.
The release says, “While at the hospital, Anderson had a heart attack and was pronounced dead.”
In the video, Los Angeles police captain Kelly Muiz says that Anderson died about four and a half hours after the force was used.
What did the Police say after the incident?
Police said that a preliminary toxicology test of Anderson’s blood showed that it contained cocaine and marijuana. The coroner’s office in Los Angeles County is expected to do its toxicology tests.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said that the videos were made public because families had asked for them to be made public.
At a news conference on Wednesday, he said, “This is not to do anything other than show our commitment to full transparency and to judge this based on what the investigation tells us, and to ask the public to be patient while we do this.”