Family of man who died during Stun Gun altercation with LAPD seeks reports

Relatives of a Black man who went into cardiac arrest and died after being shot multiple times with a stun gun during a 2023 struggle with Los Angeles police in Venice want a judge to order the department to turn over some related reports and witness statements explanations.

Keenan Anderson, the father of a five-year-old son, had been a teacher for more than eight years, most recently at Digital Pioneers Academy, a high school in Washington, DC. Anderson was also a cousin of Patrisse Cullors, a fellow student. -founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Anderson, 31, had been visiting relatives in the Los Angeles area over the holidays when he got into a confrontation with police after a minor traffic accident near Lincoln and Venice boulevards on January 3, 2023. An autopsy revealed that Anderson died from an enlarged heart and cocaine use.

On Friday, the family’s attorneys, including Carl Douglas, filed court papers with Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis requesting access to LAPD reports and civilian witness statements, including the Force Investigation Division report, digital and audio recordings , photographs, body-worn cameras and other videos, citizen complaints against the officers involved and recordings of the police dispatcher.

“This lawsuit alleges the outrageous, careless and unlawful use of deadly force by city officials, as well as their malicious attempts to distort the true facts of their own misconduct,” plaintiffs’ attorneys allege in their pleadings filed ahead of a planned meeting in August. 12 hearing. “Additionally, this case raises questions about the questionable training and use of force by the police officers that directly led to Mr. Anderson’s death.”

One officer “grabbed, squeezed, and shot Anderson at least six times in rapid succession with a stun gun in the heart, each charge sending 50,000 watts of electrical energy to his body, while the other officers pressed Anderson’s body against the street while struggling to get his arms behind him.” to pull his back, according to court papers from plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Two officers applied pressure to Anderson’s neck, windpipe and trachea as he writhed with resistance as he struggled to breathe, Anderson family attorneys further allege in their lawsuits, which further state that Anderson died 4 1/2 hours later.

“I believe that the defendants’ choice to use excessive force … was racially motivated as he was a young black man in a predominantly white area,” prosecutors’ attorney Rachel P. Jacobs said in an affidavit.

Earlier this year, the LAPD released some edited body camera footage showing the encounter between Anderson and police. At one point, the video shows Anderson being held on the ground as Anderson screams that officers tried to “George Floyd” him, a reference to the man who died while being restrained by police in Minneapolis.

Related Posts