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Lawyers acting on behalf of the family of the five-year-old son of a man who died after Los Angeles police repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun have filed a $50 million lawsuit in damages against the city. .
The legal claim is necessary before the son and estate of Keenan Anderson can sue the LAPD for wrongful death and civil rights violations for restraining him and delivering six electric shocks with a Taser in less than a minute on March 3. January, after a traffic collision.
‘If you taser someone with 50,000 watts of electrical power six times…is there really anything strange that moments later their heart starts beating?’ asked attorney Carl Douglas at a news conference.
“Is it any wonder why four hours later his heart couldn’t take the pressure of that Taser anymore and he gave up, leaving a five-year-old boy in his wake?”
Lawyers for the five-year-old son of Keenan Anderson, 31, who died after Los Angeles police electrocuted him multiple times with a stun gun, have filed a claim for $50 million in damages.
Attorney Carl Douglas, right, holds a press conference with Gabrielle Hansel, guardian of five-year-old Syncere Kai Anderson, to announce the filing of a $50 million damages lawsuit.
Syncere Kai Anderson, 5, is held by his mother, Gabrielle Hansell, at a news conference.
The claim was filed on behalf of Anderson’s son, Syncere Kai Anderson, who was with his mother, Gabrielle Hansell, the administrator of his estate, along with their attorneys.
Anderson, 31, a high school English teacher in Washington, DC, and cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, was the suspect in a hit-and-run traffic accident when police pulled him over in Venice.
He later fled from officers and resisted arrest, police said.
Anderson yelled for help after officers pinned him down on the street and repeatedly electrocuted him, according to video released by the department.
“They’re trying to kill me,” Anderson could be heard shouting.
The footage showed an officer pressing his forearm on Anderson’s chest and an elbow on his neck.
“They are calling me George Floyd,” Anderson said, referring to the black man killed by officers in Minnesota in May 2020.
After being subdued, Anderson went into cardiac arrest and died at a hospital about four hours later.
The officers repeatedly gave Anderson instructions which he refused to follow. He was warned that he would be electrocuted if he did not physically comply with his instructions to deliver
Anderson could be heard yelling on police body camera: ‘Please help me, please’
“We can only wonder what Keenan Anderson meant,” attorney Ben Crump said. “But if he meant that he would end up dead at the end of the encounter at the hands of the LAPD, then Keenan Anderson was right. They George Floyd him.
Chief Michel Moore said Anderson initially complied with officers as they investigated whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but was subdued after fighting off officers who had chased him when he fled.
“In my preliminary review of this incident, it’s unclear what the role of that taser was,” Moore said.
“To be clear, it depends on the entirety of our investigative resources, but also on hospital medical records, as well as a coroner’s report and its formal, forensic-level examination. However, as this investigation continues, I will pay close attention to the use of the Taser.
Anderson ran scared, as other black men have, when additional officers responding to a call for backup ran toward him, Douglas said.
The claim alleges the officers used unreasonable deadly force, carelessly and mistakenly deployed the Taser, failed to follow choking hazard training while handcuffing Anderson and conspired among themselves to conceal and distort information in false police reports.
“Three trained killers, because that’s what trained officers are, couldn’t handcuff an unarmed man without Tasering him six separate times in the back of his heart,” Douglas said.
Melina Abdullah, left, hugs Patrisse Cullors, right, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, at the press conference.
Patrisse Cullors, left, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, listens as Gabrielle Hansell, mother of five-year-old Syncere Kai Anderson, right, announce a lawsuit.
“To have to listen to Keenan ask for help the way he did and see him hurt by the very people who were supposed to protect him is something I will never get over,” Hansel said.
Attorneys Benjamin Crump, left, and Carl Douglas, right, held a news conference Friday.
An LAPD toxicology test found cocaine and cannabis in Anderson’s body, the chief said. The coroner’s office will also run a toxicology report.
The officers have yet to be named, but their union released a statement saying the family and attorneys were “blatantly trying to profit” from a “tragic incident.”
An LAPD spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy not to discuss pending litigation.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, released a statement again blaming Anderson, saying he escalated the confrontation while high.
“Minor car accidents are usually handled with an exchange of information between the drivers and a call to the insurance company,” according to LAPPL.
“On the other hand, when a person who is high on cocaine gets into an accident, tries to open the car door of an innocent driver, and then flees the scene and runs into traffic, police officers must act. We demand that the police chief release the remaining seven minutes of body camera video that will capture the entire episode with Mr. Anderson.
“We believe the missing video will confirm that Mr. Anderson was the one who escalated this tragic incident that his family and Mr. Crump are now blatantly trying to profit from.”
In a post on Instagram, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors revealed that Anderson was her cousin.
In the aftermath of his death, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors took to Instagram to mourn the death of her cousin, blaming the LAPD for his death.
“As I watched the video, what became clear to me is that my cousin, Keenan, was actually very scared and was repeatedly asking for help, and unfortunately, that’s not what he got from the LAPD,” Cullors told the Los Angeles Times.
‘At the time, the question is why I wasn’t there [help]?
‘Why wasn’t my cousin offered medical attention?’ she asked. ‘Why didn’t they call an ambulance or a fire department if he kept repeating that he needed help, that he needed support?’
Cullors told the news outlet that before seeing the body camera footage, she said that she and her family were trying to figure out what really happened.
“What we do know is that Keenan was alive before his experience with the police and then he died. But we don’t want to continue the narrative of what the police were saying because we don’t know if that’s true,” he said.
“Keenan, you deserve pity,” Cullors said. ‘Keenan, you deserve to be in your classroom, supporting your students. Keenan, you deserve to have your wedding day. Keenan, you deserve to raise your son.
Footage shows 31-year-old teacher Keenan Anderson, who received multiple electric shocks during a fight with Los Angeles police officers in Venice and died at a hospital.