D.C. Teacher Keenan Anderson Dead After LAPD Officer Repeatedly Tased Him – Washington City Paper

Keenan Anderson, a highschool English trainer at Digital Pioneers Academy in D.C., died hours after L.A. Police Division officers repeatedly shocked him with a Taser earlier this month following a automobile collision. An LAPD officer tased Anderson, 31, in the midst of the road as different officers held him down and tried to handcuff him, based on physique digital camera footage of the Jan. 3 incident launched this week.

Anderson is a father and the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. He was taken to the hospital and went into cardiac arrest. He died hours after the police encounter. 

“He was killed by LAPD in Venice on January third, 2023,” Cullors posted on Instagram this week. “Keenan deserves to be alive proper now, his baby deserves to be raised by his father. Keenan we are going to combat for you and for all of our family members impacted by state violence. I really like you.”

Physique digital camera footage exhibits an officer strategy Anderson in the midst of the road following a automobile collision. “Please assist me,” Anderson says. He follows the officer’s instructions to take a seat on the sidewalk, and the 2 have a quick dialog earlier than Anderson will get up, and says, “I would like folks to see me.” An individual off digital camera will be heard saying “We’re all watching you. You’re OK.”

Anderson then walks into the road, because the officer tells him to take a seat again down. The officer chases Anderson into the road and orders him “roll over in your abdomen.” A number of officers then seize Anderson as he pleads for assist.

“Please don’t do that. Please don’t do that, sir. Assist me, please. Assist me, please,” Anderson says as officers wrestle him to the bottom and attempt to put him in handcuffs. Whereas one officer has his elbow on Andrson’s neck and others look like holding him down, one other officer warns: “Flip over or I’m gonna tase you.”

“They’re attempting to George Floyd me,” Anderson says. 

The officer with the Taser repeatedly shocks Anderson whilst different officers maintain him down with their physique weight and put him in handcuffs.

LAPD Chief Michael Moore claimed that preliminary toxicology assessments confirmed cocaine and marijuana in Anderson’s system. He stated, “It’s unclear what function the bodily wrestle with the officers and using the Taser performed in his unlucky dying,” based on information reviews. Moore additionally famous there is no such thing as a restrict to the variety of instances an officer can use a Taser, however stated “officers ought to typically keep away from repeated or simultaneous activations to keep away from potential damage.”

Anderson is the third one who has died by the hands of LAPD officers this 12 months.

Digital Pioneers Academy founder Mashea Ashton says in a press release that the main points of Anderson’s dying “are as disturbing as they’re tragic. He suffered cardiac arrest after being forcibly restrained and repeatedly tased by police following a visitors accident.”

Ashton notes that Anderson is the third member of the college group to be harmed by violence up to now two and a half months. Antoine Manning, a 14-year-old pupil, and Jakhi Snider, a 15-year-old pupil, had been each shot and killed in separate incidents in D.C. final 12 months. Ashton says the college group is asking essential questions, equivalent to how the police might have de-escalated the scenario with Anderson, how can we cease dropping Black males and boys to violence, and transfer ahead.

“Our group is grieving,” Ashton says in her assertion. “However we’re additionally offended. Offended that, as soon as once more, a identified, liked, and revered member of our group is not with us. Offended that one other proficient, lovely black soul is gone too quickly.”

—Mitch Ryals (suggestions? mryals@washingtoncitypaper.com)