In another incident of excessive use of force that has sparked national outrage, the California police has shot down and killed a wheelchair-bound double-amputee on Thursday.
“I’m heartbroken, and filled with anger and rage. I just can’t understand why they would do that to someone in a wheelchair. I want somebody to explain to me what was the reason that you had to gun down a guy who has no legs.”
-Tatiana Jackson, Lowe’s sister
Video posted to twitter purportedly shows Lowe moments before his death hobbling away on the ground on the sidewalk, seconds before he was fatally shot. The cell-phone video shows Lowe fleeing from two officers who have their guns pointed at him. The video then ends abruptly without showing the actual moment of Lowe getting shot.
The Jackson family has called on the government to terminate the officer involved in the case and demanded that murder charges be brought against them.
Lowe’s sister Tatiana Jackson told the Guardian, “I’m heartbroken, and filled with anger and rage. I just can’t understand why they would do that to someone in a wheelchair. I want somebody to explain to me what was the reason that you had to gun down a guy who has no legs.”
In a statement released to the press, the Huntington Park Police Department has said that the police were responding to “a life-threatening stab wound resulting in a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.” The perpetrator of the alleged crime was described by the victim as a Black man who dismounted from wheelchair and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a butcher knife, the statement added. The victim was then taken to the local hospital where he remains in critical condition. The police claims Lowe was the suspected described by the victim.
The statement of the police claims that Lowe resisted arrest and “threatened to advance or throw the knife at the officers. Two Taser were deployed by the Police, prior to the use of firearm, but the Tasers were ineffective, the statement notes.
Lowe is survived by two children and was struggling to get by financially after losing his legs recently.
The news of Lowe’s death come in days after the tragic custodial death of Tyre D. Nichols who lost his life to injuries sustained from beatings at the hands of Memphis Police official following a traffic stop. The nation is steel reeling from the tragic loss.
California law requires the office of Attorney General to independently review and evaluate incidents involving the use of fire-arms shootings by police officer. The Attorney General Office told CNN that they were not investigating the incident as yet.
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