Lowe’s family is now demanding answers, as they claim the amputee was “murdered” and “excessive force” used against him.
“They murdered my son, in a wheelchair with no legs. They do need to do something about it,” mother Dorothy Lowe told a press conference.
A second police car arrives, carrying a third cop. Within 15 seconds of the third officer arriving, they fire multiple shots, shooting Lowe in the upper torso.
Lowe falls to the ground, landing on his stomach, before he is handcuffed. He died at the scene.
“The suspect was tased at least twice by Huntington Park Officers but the deployment of the taser was ineffective,” a statement from the LA County Sheriff’s Office said.
“The suspect attempted to throw the butcher knife at the officers again, resulting in an officer-involved shooting.”
Huntington Park Police Department said in a statement its officers were responding to a report of a stabbing.
Responding officers found a victim suffering from “a life-threatening stab wound resulting in a collapsed lung and internal bleeding”, the statement said.
The victim described the attacker as a black man in a wheelchair who “dismounted the wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation, and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12-inch butcher knife” and then fled the scene in his wheelchair, Department said.
The family told the LA Times that Lowe lost the lower halves of both legs recently, following a different altercation with police in Texas.
He had been living with his mother as a result of the injury.
On the day of his death, she says he’d told her he was going to McDonald’s.
Lieutenant Hugo Reynaga of the LA County Sheriff’s Office said the officers involved had been placed on leave “for a few days” as they underwent psychiatric evaluation, but no disciplinary action had been taken.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident, as is standard procedure for shootings involving their officers.
