California police shoot dead black man with both legs amputated next to his wheelchair

New drama that feeds the debate around police violence in the United States. After the death of Tire Nichols, an African American, beaten by black police officers on January 7 in Memphis, a 36-year-old black man was shot to death Thursday by police in Huntington Park, California.

This time, the controversy grows on the other side of the Atlantic because the police shot in the direction of Anthony Lowe, amputee of both legs, as he fled, after getting out of his wheelchair.

“I just can’t understand why they would do this to someone in a wheelchair. I want someone to explain to me why you had to shoot a guy who has no legs,” lamented Tatiana Jackson, Anthony Lowe’s younger sister. , to the Guardian on Tuesday.

According to California police, he had received a call that a man in a wheelchair had stabbed someone. Once there, he reportedly identified Anthony Lowe who made a “movement several times over his head as if he were going to throw the knife.” It is before this threat that the two police officers fired a dozen bullets in the direction of the father of two children.

A video is circulating on social media.

Unlike the death of Tire Nichols, the Huntington Park police do not use body cameras. But, for a few hours, videos of witnesses at the scene have been circulating on social networks.

One of them, in which Anthony Lowe is recognizable according to a family member on CNN, shows the 36-year-old, held at gunpoint by two police officers, trying to escape as best he could on the sidewalk. , leaving his wheelchair behind.

In fact, he holds a shiny object in his right hand, which could be similar to a knife. The video cuts out before the bullets are fired.

“It could have been handled differently. But they chose shooting as the solution to the problem. It’s crazy,” the mother of her son told The Guardian.

As public complaints across the country intensify, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide unit has opened an investigation, as required by procedure.

For their part, the police officers who shot Anthony Lowe are on leave “for a few days,” the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Agency spokesman confirmed in The Los Angeles Times. They will undergo a psychological evaluation and will be removed from the field until the results are available.