Body camera video shows LAPD detaining, using Taser on man involved in crash
By: Anderson died Jan. 3 after going into cardiac arrest about 4-and-a-half hours after officers shocked him during a struggle in Venice near the intersection of Lincoln and Venice boulevards, the LAPD said. The department later said he had attempted to carjack somebody.
Bodycam video shows Anderson running in the middle of the street alongside a motorcycle officer. He tells the officer to help him and points in another direction. The officer drives in that direction, at which point people point him back to Anderson.
The officer drives back and again encounters Anderson in the middle of the street.
“Somebody’s trying to kill me,” Anderson says, jogging onto the sidewalk. The officer tells Anderson to stop and to get up against a wall, prompting Anderson to drop to his knees and put his hands behind his head while telling the officer, “I didn’t mean to.”
The officer gets off his bike, walks toward Anderson and asks him to calm down. An agitated Anderson says that he lost his key and had someone come and fix his car for him. The officer asks him to sit down with his legs crossed.
Anderson tells the officer that somebody is trying to kill him and that somebody is going to try to put stuff in his car. The LAPD said Anderson tried to run away about seven minutes later.
Anderson is then shown standing and asking for water. The officer tells him he’ll get him some water but to sit against the wall. Anderson begins walking away and saying he wants people to see him. The officer tells him to sit on the sidewalk, closer to the intersection, if he wants people to see him.
Anderson continues walking away into traffic, with the officer asking him to come back. Anderson runs off, prompting the officer to get back on his motorcycle and briefly chase him.
The officer quickly comes upon Anderson again in the middle of traffic and shouts at him to get on the ground. Anderson puts his hands behind his head and sits down. The officer shouts at him to turn over onto his stomach. Anderson gets on his side and appears briefly to try to get up.
Two other officers quickly rush over and all three grab at the man, who shouts for help and says the police are trying to kill him. The motorcycle officer calls his name and tells him to “relax.”
Anderson continues shouting that the officers are trying to kill him. Bodycam videos from other officers show police holding Anderson down and telling him to calm down or they’ll deploy their Tasers.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me. They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson says, referencing the man killed while handcuffed by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020.
Anderson calls the officers “actors” and repeatedly shouts “C Lo,” saying, “They think I killed C Lo. They think I killed C Lo” while shouting for help.
During the struggle, an officer uses the stun gun on the man. They’re eventually able to handcuff Anderson and bind his legs together.
The LAPD said LAFD paramedics arrived about one minute later and rendered aid to the man. About five minutes later, the department said, paramedics took Anderson to a local hospital, where he died hours from cardiac arrest some 4-and-a-half hours after being shocked by the Taser.
The LAPD said its forensic toxicology unit conducted a toxicology exam on Jan. 5 and determined Anderson had cocaine metabolite and cannabinoids in his system. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office will conduct its own toxicology exam, the department added.
Mayor Bass said that no matter what the investigations into the three deaths determine, Los Angeles must work to reduce police use-of-force incidents.
“No matter what these investigations determine, however, the need for urgent change is clear. We must reduce the use of force overall, and I have absolutely no tolerance for excessive force. We must also lead our city forward – finally – on the mental health crisis that has been allowed to grow, fester and cause so much harm to individual Angelenos, their families and our communities,” she said.